Salem Alfred Trials
by rexlover180
Summary: Alfred is trying to run away from his past, but it won't let him. When he finds himself in Salem surrounded by witches, he is forced to question even his own sanity as his world falls apart in front of him for the second time. USUK, sequel to Witch!
1. Welcome!

**If you did not read the original story, Witch!, please do so now before reading this, as this is the sequel. Thank you.**

* * *

Alfred took a deep breath, taking in the sea air. He leaned against the railing of the ship and watched as the sun went down. It had been nearly 2 months and he still wasn't tired of watching it. He sighed deeply, gazing over the ocean.

"One more day," a voice said behind Alfred and he looked over his shoulder. It was Arthur.

"Yeah," Alfred sighed and turned his head back to the sea. And then with fake enthusiasm, "New World here we come…"

"The sun is pretty," Arthur tried, mimicking Alfred's position right next to him.

"Back in my town, I never got to see it like this," Alfred said dreamily. "I only got to see it go over the tree tops and then it left. That was the most of a horizon I got. It's so interesting to see it drop over the side of the ocean."

"Mathew seems to be fascinated by it to," Arthur chuckled lightly. "You two really are very similar."

"Don't tell him that," Alfred smiled. "He always hated it when people confused us. He may have said he was older, but we still looked exactly alike."

Alfred looked over to his left, the direction the boat was going, and away from Arthur. He found it interesting to watch a small speck in the distance turn into a blob and now it looked so vast, it looked like it would stretch out for miles and miles in every direction.

There was a long silence as Alfred stared off in the distance. But, Arthur broke it, his voice delicate. "What are you always thinking about when you come up here? You come up here every day alone and you always seem to be daydreaming when you look out to the sunset. What are you thinking about."

Alfred sighed. He really didn't want to talk about this. "You know."

"Do you want to talk to somebody about it?" Arthur asked him and Alfred looked down to the water below the railing.

"No."

"This isn't something you should be ignoring," Arthur said.

"I know that," Alfred snapped and finally looked up at Arthur. His forest green eyes were looking right at him. They were clouded with worry. "I'll talk about it when I'm ready, okay?"

"I just don't want you to keep this bottled up," Arthur said. "It's not healthy."

Alfred grinned at him. He knew a way to get out of this. He lightly held on to Arthur's chin, tilting it up towards him and kissed him softly.

"I'm fine," Alfred smiled as they separated.

"If you say so," Arthur sighed. Alfred hadn't let go, so they were standing like that. Hardly anyone was on deck, though. "We should probably head to bed soon. Big day tomorrow and all that…"

"Sure thing," Alfred continued smiling and looking into Arthur's eyes. All he wanted to do was hug onto him tightly and bawl out all of his problems, but he couldn't do that right now. Something was just holding him back and he couldn't figure out what it was. Alfred began to felt tears in his eyes and that was when he let go and started walking below decks, where everyone else was.

He heard Arthur sigh heavily, grumbling, "Alfred…"

* * *

Alfred and Mathew rushed to the side of the ship the next morning, gripping onto the railing tightly as they looked over the sea to Massachusetts, which was so close! It looked beautiful! They hadn't seen real land in what felt like forever. From where they stood, they could see a vast town.

"It's beautiful, yeah?" a sailor asked them.

"First land in 2 months!" Mathew said excitedly.

"So where's Salem?" Alfred asked him.

"That's her right there!" the sailor said proudly

"I heard from that ship we passed a week ago that something has happened in Salem," another sailor came up to them. "There were some children dancing in the forest with that Barbados slave, I heard. Supposedly it was witchcraft."

"What?" Arthur became interested now. "What's been going on?"

"I didn't hear much from the ship," the sailor rubbed the back of his head. "All I heard is that there was a girl who wouldn't wake up."

"What's so special about dancing?" Alfred asked.

"They must be Puritan," Arthur muttered as the sailors walked away. "They expect their women to stay inside all day and read the bible. And do nothing else than please their husband in every single way."

"You sound like you hate them," Mathew giggled.

"Their ideals on witches are rather far-fetched," Arthur grumbled. "They believe that a witch is someone who makes a pact with Satan. Writes their name in his book with their own blood… It just irritates me that they think witches are some kind of evil creature."

"Ah, I'm sure we'll be fine," Alfred said cheerfully. "You act nothing like someone like that. So you'll be fine!"

"I'm not so sure," Arthur sighed. "And then there's the Three Musketeers…"

"Yeah, why did we have to bring them along with us?" Alfred groaned.

"Believe it or not," Arthur said, looking over at the three, who looked to be flirting with girl passengers on the ship, "they are actually quite helpful when they want to be. They're good with things like hunting. Which might be necessary."

"Think Gilbert's gonna be aimed at first thing once we get there?" Alfred asked.

"Definitely," Mathew smiled.

"He's got the eyes of the devil!" Alfred mocked, laughing heavily.

"Do not!" Alfred felt the back of his head get hit hard as he heard Gilbert's voice. "They're just too awesome for you to understand!"

"Yes, that's it," Arthur grinned

"What are you guys talking about, anyway?" Antonio asked.

"Salem," Alfred shrugged. "It's got some issues, but it's not too much of a problem."

"Right," Gilbert sighed, obviously still irritated with him.

"So, what time will we be docking?" Francis asked.

"I dunno," Alfred shrugged. "But I don't think it'll be easy to find a place to stay…all considering…"

"We could always stay in the forest," Arthur shrugged.

"Yeah…" Alfred rubbed the back of his head uncertainly. "Haven't really been out in the forest and slept in it more than twice. And one time I was tied to a tree…"

"It's not that hard!" Gilbert said happily.

"All you need to do is maintain a fire," Mathew added helpfully.

"Fine then," Alfred nodded.

"Next problem is food," Antonio said.

"Not a problem," Arthur said. "I can cook."

"Like hell you're cooking for me!" Francis scoffed.

"My food is not that bad, you bloody frog!" Arthur snapped.

"Oh, I'm sure his food's not that bad!" Alfred said happily. "He's probably got nothing on Abigail."

"I remember the time she tried to make me stew," Mathew laughed. "I think it killed my taste buds for a week."

"I still had to eat her food after you left," Alfred grinned. "My taste buds are gone."

"So, how is Abigail?" Mathew asked.

"Oh, she's fine," Alfred muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He laughed nervously.

"Well I guess you'll just have to eat his poison for yourself to understand," Francis spoke.

"I should kill you!" Arthur threatened.

"Hey, even I know that your magic is only sub-par around these two!" Francis said, hiding behind Alfred.

"Doesn't mean I can't use it, unlike you," Arthur crossed his arms, watching Francis cower.

The ship had stopped by now and the many sailors were setting up the dock so that people could step off. Mathew was gazing off the side of the ship, watching as people walked around. He suddenly became interested in someone near the port.

"Hey, who's that?" he pointed to her. "She looks familiar…"

"Who?" Alfred looked over to where he was pointing, but no one was there.

"Never mind," Mathew sighed. "I guess she left…"

"Gilbert, I suggest you be careful," Arthur muttered, already seeing the people taking interest. "The people here are Puritan. They won't hesitate to condemn you."

"Yeah?" Gilbert laughed. "I've been condemned several times in the past. I'm still alive."

"Barely, I might add," Arthur reminded him.

"And you're no different!" Gilbert defended himself.

"So how big is Salem?" Alfred wondered out loud, looking about the massive town.

"Seems rather large," Arthur said. "Looks to have only one church, though, so it can't be that big."

"Looks peaceful enough for right now…" Mathew said. "Despite what the sailor said."

"Well, the trials happen in the day, inside," Arthur recalled. "And during the night I think they gather up the accused and put them in jail."

"Well isn't that lovely," Alfred snickered, copying Arthur's accent.

"I wonder how many they have…" Arthur muttered to himself.

"Who said that they were gathering people in the first place?" Antonio said.

"Well, women dancing in the forest doing witchcraft and a girl who won't wake up after participating will make a Puritan wonder," Arthur snapped. "They'll start accusing people after a while and it's been a couple days."

"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Alfred said happily. He noticed that the sailors were done setting up and ran for the docs, not caring that he cut people off in the process. He ran down the plank and onto the dock, very happy to be on land that didn't rock anymore. He nearly ran over to the grass and kissed it.

"Alfred, you idiot!" Arthur called from the ship. "You don't just run off the ship!"

"But I just did!" Alfred called back to him.

"Hey, brother, look! Its new people!" an excited voice sounded off behind Alfred. He tooke his eyes off the ship to look behind himself. He saw two young men, about the same age as him. They both had brown hair, but one had a little bit deeper shade. The one with lighter hair looked extremely happy and had a little curl sticking out the left side of his head. The one with darker hair looked extremely irritated and had a curl coming out the right side of his head.

"What the hell are you yelling for?" the darker haired one snapped at him.

"But I'm just so excited!" the lighter haired one replied happily.

The darker haired one scoffed. "You know what Abigail would do if you talked to anyone right now."

The lighter haired one's face saddened. "I know…" he muttered and allowed himself to be led away by the darker haired one.

"What was that about?" Mathew asked. He and the rest were now off the ship and next to Alfred

"I have no idea," Alfred was still staring in their direction.

"Well," Arthur sighed and looked over to the forest off to the side of Salem. "It appears that would make for a good forest. We just need to make sure that no one owns that land."

"Or if they do own it," Antonio said, "that they wouldn't mind we stayed there."

The group started walking and got off of the docs. Just as expected, people were already eyeing them weirdly. They had almost made it to the forest when Mathew stopped.

"Alfred," his voice sounded concerned and worried. "Y-you better look at this…"

Alfred stopped and turned around.

And he couldn't believe his eyes.

* * *

**Ta-Da! First chapter of the sequel of Witch! And I am going to say this now, I know this is a real place, but I do not intend for this to be historically accurate. There is going to be the basics of what happened, the dancing, the trials, jailing, and hanging. But this is it. We have seen the Italy bros, and they will stand in as the main accusers of witches. And then in place of the main Reverend that comes in from outside of Salem is Ludwig. Gave that away a bit early, but I want my point get across now.**

**And, it's been decided that the main villain is an OC, sorry if that is bad, but it fits. You'll see later.**

**And please review, so that I can update fast, like last time.**

**Gilbert is more likely to admit that he is lame than I am to own Hetalia.**


	2. Kiss

"Shit…" Alfred muttered to himself. The second he saw the person in front of him, he felt paralyzed, like he couldn't even move. Before him, he saw the spitting image of the girl from his village that had a crush on him. Before him was the girl that had drowned herself in the lake in his village because he said he didn't care for her like that. This was Abigail in her long-blonde haired and brown-eyed glory. This was the Abigail that Alfred hadn't seen in half a year.

"A-Abigail?" he squeaked as the woman moved towards him. This wasn't like the old Abigail, this one had a lot more confidence.

"Surprised, Alfie?" she asked teasingly as she came up close to Alfred. She gripped onto the collar of Alfred's tunic and lurched him into a kiss. She immediately slipped her tongue into his mouth and Alfred could feel his eyes widen. He couldn't move. And he was absorbed with a feeling that nearly made him faint. It was like how he used to feel with Arthur, but a million times stronger.

She separated them, pulling out a massive grin that made her look cocky. "It's so great to see you," she said slyly and looked over to Alfred's left, where the rest of the people had lined up. Mathew was to his right. "And who are your friends?" She spoke and Alfred could have sworn he saw her eyes flash yellow. She went down the line, stroking their chins, lingering on Francis more than the others. Alfred still couldn't move from the shock.

Abigail was dead. How was she here? How was she touching and kissing people? Where did this confidence come from?

"And Mattie!" she said happily, hugging Mathew. "How nice it is to see you!" Alfred couldn't help but notice that Mathew's knees went weak the second she touched him and he looked like he would have fallen if Abigail wasn't holding him up.

Arthur cleared his throat. He was the first of the group to talk since the kiss. "So your name is Abigail?" he asked.

"Oh, your accent is so cute!" she swooned and went back over to Arthur. She looked into his eyes for a second before pulling him into a lip lock, too. Alfred could barely see that she was shoving her tongue inside of his mouth, too. This snapped Alfred out of whatever stupor he was in.

He quickly pulled Abigail away from Arthur and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Abigail," he growled at her, almost like a warning.

"Why are you here and not in the village?" Mathew asked, a little breathless.

"And how are you still alive?" Alfred demanded and Abigail giggled.

"This is her?" Arthur demanded. "The girl they found in the lake you told me about?"

"That wasn't me, silly!" Abigail spoke happily. "That was a doll!"

"A…a doll?" Alfred stuttered.

"Well," Abigail smirked. "I figured that since you were friends with so many witches now, you should know all about it, right, Alfie?"

Alfred released Abigail and backed up slightly. "Wh-what?"

"Alfred, what do you mean by 'still alive'?" Mathew muttered out quietly.

"I told her I didn't like her the way she liked me…" Alfred stuttered. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"And then I put a little doll in the lake face-first," Abigail spoke happily. "Then I escaped from that stupid village."

"How long have you been here?" Alfred asked.

"According to these people?" Abigail looked around at the others like they were beneath her. "My whole life."

"But in reality, a few months," Arthur crossed his arms.

"Well aren't you special?" Abigail returned her attention to Arthur. She stroked his chin delicately before holding onto the bottom part.

"So what kind of witch are you?" Arthur asked, keeping a straight face, which was more than could be said about Alfred.

"What?" Abigail grinned, using mock surprise in her voice.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "It's obvious you aren't a normal witch. So, what kind are you?"

"Well that's my little secret," Abigail grinned slyly.

"When did you gain all of this confidence?" Mathew asked quietly. "Last time I saw you, you were a shy girl with a silent crush."

"And last time I saw you, you were lying to everyone's faces," Abigail moved over to stand in front of Mathew. "The outside world changes you, honey. Well, at least it did that for me." Mathew stayed quiet. "So I see you haven't changed. Though you have grown up a little. Are you still telling that lie that you're two years older than Alfred?"

"No," Alfred finally had enough courage to speak up, thankful that Abigail's attention turned to him. "We fixed that situation."

"Awe, isn't that nice?" Abigail chuckled. "Are you two all buddy-buddy now? Even after he abandoned you two years ago?"

"Shut up," Alfred said through clenched teeth.

"You know, I'm getting tired of not talking," Gilbert finally blurted out. "Who the hell is this bitch?"

Abigail's eyes flashed with anger as she wheeled around to face Gilbert. "What did you just call me?" she growled, but it didn't seem like that was her voice. "You've come here to start a new life just like the rest, correct?"

"Yes," Gilbert said, obviously not threatened.

"Well, I can ruin you in this town. One more insult like that, and you could wind up hanged," Abigail threatened.

Gilbert tilted his head and grinned. "You have no idea how many people have told me that. I've been hanged about 4 times. You don't scare me."

Abigail snorted. "You should." With that, she turned on her heel and returned to Alfred. She stood on her tip toes to get up close to his face and she placed her hands on his chest and stroked him lightly. "I never knew why it was that I like you so much…" her eyes flashed yellow again. "But now that I know this… You're far more attractive than ever." She pressed her lips against Alfred's again. She seemed to attack his lips with a fever and, when they separated, she was gasping for air. Alfred, on the other hand, wasn't. He hadn't participated at all. All he did was stand there. That was all he could do, he felt like he was about to pass out from Abigails' touch.

"Oh, come on, Alfie," Abigail teased. "You could at least play along with me."

"Um, no," Alfred moved her hands off his chest and put them together into one of his hands. "I've told you before I don't like you that way. Or any way."

"You say that now," Abigail grinned. "But it's only a matter of time before you're all falling over me."

"And what are you implying?" Antonio asked.

"It's only a matter of time…" Abigail hummed to herself.

"You know, I must say," Francis finally piped up. "I believe I am already falling for you now."

"Oh, dear God…" Arthur muttered.

"You are French, oui?" Abigail asked him, not moving from her spot, but looking over at him. Alfred saw her grin evily, but no one else could. She was planning something.

"Oui, je suis," Francis spoke eloquently.

Abigail hummed to herself. Then she grinned, "Well then, I guess we will just have to see if you are a true Frenchman, won't we?"

She walked off to the left and Francis followed her like some kind of lost puppy.

"Abigail…died," Mathew said after they left, and then glared at Alfred. "And you didn't tell me!"

"It never came up," Alfred shrugged. "Now how about we find the person that owns that land?"

"No," Mathew crossed his arms in front of himself.

"Look," Alfred sighed. "You've hidden a lot of things from me, too."

"For your own protection!" Mathew interjected.

"But I didn't think it would hurt anything!" Alfred argued. "I thought we would never have to see her again!"

"I clearly asked you how she was doing," Mathew countered. "And you lied to my face."

"Okay, fine then!" Alfred snapped. "So we're genetically good at lying! Does that satisfy you?"

"No, it doesn't," Mathew continued glaring at him. "I will not have my own brother lie to my own face!"

"You're not older than me anymore!" Alfred glared now. "We are the same age, which means that you can't talk that way to me. And, you know, I didn't take it very well when I learned that my own brother lied to me about his age for our whole lives! You're mad at me for telling a small lie, while you lied for your whole life!"

"I would not call what you did a small lie, Alfred," Mathew said.

"And then you lied to the rest of the world, too!" Alfred continued. He knew that this was bad territory, and he didn't know why he was going here. "How many witches did you hide, again? 100! How many of them do you think cause harm in this world! And then you kept on lying after that, when you were being punished for lying!"

"I have made my peace with that," Mathew's eyes were fiery, but his voice wavered.

"Well," Gilbert spoke abruptly, which made both Alfred and Mathew jump, "this seems like a family matter. So I'm just gonna go leave and find that land owner. C'mon, Toni." Both Gilbert and Antonio departed quickly, away from the arguing siblings.

"You haven't even made peace with your past!" Mathew argued.

Alfred felt his eye twitch. "You have no idea what I've gone through!"

"How can I know when you won't tell anybody!" Mathew yelled at him.

"Mathew, Alfred, please calm down," Arthur's voice rang out, but he was well ignored.

"You don't know the torture I've been through!" Alfred yelled at his brother.

"I went through an entire year of torture!" Mathew's voice wavered a lot now and it looked like his eyes were about to water. "You can't say that you've been through worse! I've experienced it all!"

"I've felt what your pain was like before!" Alfred countered. "I fell to the ground screaming because I felt your pain! And I can honestly say that I've been through worse!"

"You haven't even been in the real world for 3 months!" Mathew shouted. "I've been out here for 2 years. So _I _can honestly that that you haven't even seen anything yet!"

"Obviously you haven't either!" Alfred yelled. "Considering you were locked in a dungeon for a whole year!"

"Sh-shut up!" Mathew nearly screamed. He closed his eyes and held his head on both sides.

"What's wrong?" Alfred crossed his arms in front of himself victoriously. "I thought you said you made peace with it. Or is a whole year of beating too much for you to handle? At least I've stopped complaining about what happened to me!"

"S-stop it!" Mathew screamed again. His voice was wavering a lot and he forced his head to look at the ground. It was obvious he was in tears.

Alfred stopped, his eyes wide. He had just realized what he had done. "M-Mathew…"

"D-don't talk to me!" Mathew wailed as he ran past Alfred and into the forest.

"Shit, Mathew!" Alfred called out and tried to run to the forest, but a hand clamped around his wrist stopped him. He looked back and saw Arthur, solemn faced. "Arthur, let me go. Now!"

"I can't do that," Arthur stated. "He needs to cope with this on his own. And I have a feeling that him seeing you will only make things worse at this point."

"How do you know?" Alfred snapped at him.

"I want you to remember this," Arthur spoke solemnly. "You are both only 17. You have been through far too much before you were even mature enough to handle it. And it has only been 2 months since it happened. You may say you are at peace with it, but that is far from the truth. It was too soon for you to bring that up."

"Since when are you so wise and all mighty?" Alfred snapped. "Last time I checked, you're about the same age as me."

"Yes, and I've been out in this world longer than both of you. And I've been through more than you. I still haven't made peace with all that I've done. It still haunts me and it obviously still haunts Mathew."

"You don't think what I've been through still haunts me?" Alfred heard his voice crack.

"I have no doubt in my mind that it does," Arthur said. "Which means you should be able to understand his pain and not cause him any more. Everyone that came with us has had more than their fair share of pain which we do not wish to re-live. You need to understand that you did not encounter the worst and do not try to prove a point by bringing up anyone's past."

"I wasn't proving a point," Alfred stated.

"That's sure what it looked like to me. And everyone else in the village, who overheard your argument," Arthur sighed. "I know seeing that Abigail has arisen some kind of emotion in you, but I would like to kindly ask you keep it to yourself. You're lucky that none of them were listening to you two talk. It would have blown a lot of things for us here."

Alfred was about to say something, but he stopped himself and stayed quiet, looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry…" Alfred muttered.

"Save that for when Mathew decides he wants to see you again. I have no need for an apology," Arthur stopped for a moment and then he used his forefinger to lift up Alfred's chin so that he would look into his eyes. "I am sorry about what has happened to you, I want you to know that. I can feel your pain with you, just as long as you aren't a brat about it. I want you to know that I care for you, Alfred."

Alfred showed a weak smile. "Thank you," he mumbled. "I care for you, too."

Arthur grinned. "Just don't kiss me in front of Puritans, okay?"

Alfred laughed slightly. "No problem. But I can do as I please in the forest, right?"

"Whatever makes you happy," Arthur chuckled. "Should we go find Antonio and Gilbert?"

"Sure," Alfred nodded.

* * *

**Really quick, this Abigail is not the Abigail from the real Salem. Because that Abigail was a little kid. And this one's 17. If you think about it, she could be the Abigail from the Crucible, just minus the affair bits.**

**And...ta-da! Chapter 2! I plan on having this story be basically an internal conflict inside of Alfred, sped up by the rest of the world. And Arthur proves to be his voice of reason. And Mathew is there to remind Alfred that he is in the real world and how he affects everyone else. Ergo: their argument. The Bad Touch Trio are there for one: comic relief, and two: motivation. You will see what I mean later. And Abigail is there as the Antagonist! And proof of a little story moral! The real world can change you, choose what you do and who you meet wisely. One way, your Alfred with a sexy British boyfriend touring the world. The other, your Abigail, who's slutting around and made of evil.**

**This chapter was a little hard to write at first, I don't know why, but once I got going with it, it was so very easy. And I hope you enjoyed!**

**Please review so that we can make this get really interesting! I have a lot of things lined up and ready for this story and I hope that you're as excited as I am for it!**

**Germany is more likely to get over his OCD than I am to own Hetalia.**


	3. Dream Takeover

"Mathew, are you okay?" Gilbert asked, breaking a long silence. They were all (minus Francis) sitting around a fire in the woods that belonged to a John Proctor. He had okayed that they stay in his land until they found a better place. Like building their own house. Mathew was furthest from the fire, sitting on a rock about 2 feet away from everyone else, who was as close to the fire as possible. He was huddling into himself, his arms wrapped around his legs and his eyes were looking at his knees. They looked almost dead and clouded over. After a while of complaining, Gilbert and Antonio allowed Arthur to cook dinner. Rabbit was roasting on the fire.

"Fine," Mathew grumbled

Gilbert sighed. "Is something wrong?"

"You should ask Alfred that," Mathew snapped.

Alfred took a deep breath to prevent himself from saying something that would get him in more trouble with Mathew. But that didn't stop him from thinking it, _You're being such a child about it…_ He thought to himself.

"What did you do?" Antonio sighed Alfred.

"I am choosing not to say anything at this point," Alfred said, intent on staring at the fire and the rabbit burning. "Don't you think you should take those off the fire now?"

"What?" Arthur asked. "They aren't even fully cooked yet! You're not supposed to take them off the fire until they are fully black."

"No, you aren't," Gilbert and Antonio sighed in unison.

"You should have taken them out 10 minutes ago," Gilbert muttered. "I was waiting for you to notice."

"What?" Arthur gasped and picked up a piece of rabbit. He took a tentative bite of it. "It tastes fine to me."

"To_ you _maybe," Antonio rolled his eyes. He leaned over and took his own piece of rabbit. He took one bite and nearly gagged. "I see your cooking skills have improved some since last time."

"What is that supposed to mean!" Arthur snapped.

"He means your cooking sucks ass," Gilbert said bluntly, taking his own bite of food.

Alfred dared to pick up his own piece of rabbit and try it. "I don't think it's half bad," Alfred said. "Still better than Abigail's cooking." Mathew snorted at that comment.

"Hey, speaking of her," Gilbert said. "What the hell was that today?"

"Si," Antonio said. "I would like to know about that as well."

"She's just a girl from my village," Alfred sighed. "She had this major crush on me and then drowned herself in the lake. Turns out she didn't die."

"So, that was a girl from your past?" Antonio asked.

"Sorta," Alfred took a bite of rabbit. "She's a little different now."

"More like a lot," Mathew interjected.

"Yeah…" Alfred rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "You see, she used to be a shy little girl that did whatever any adult told her to do. And she would never dream of doing anything that was in any way risky. Like taking off with Francis. She hasn't been out in the real world for too much longer than me, from what I heard her say, and it seems to have changed her a lot more than it's changed me."

"And obviously you didn't know she's a witch," Arthur put in.

"Yeah, that's new," Alfred chuckled lightly. "And she's never openly kissed me before. Or kissed me at all, for that matter."

"So, did you get that feeling when she touched you?" Antonio asked. "Like you get with us?"

"Yes, and no," Alfred shrugged. "It felt familiar, but it was incredibly different. She's not like you guys at all. Her magic felt…odd."

"So that's why you didn't move when she kissed you?" Gilbert asked. "It didn't have anything to do with you might have enjoyed it?"

"No," Alfred and Arthur said together.

"Dear God, no," Alfred said. "I do not enjoy having someone else's tongue shoved down my throat like that, thank you very much."

"Plus you don't like women," Antonio offered.

"I guess?" Alfred shrugged.

"Must have been torture for you," Mathew said angrily, "eh, Alfred?"

"Look, Mathew!" Alfred stood up and walked over to his brother. "I'm sorry! Okay? I didn't mean for it to go that far and I am sorry! You don't need to act this way about that!"

"Well, according to you, I have barely experienced this world, so I can act as much of a child as I want to!" Mathew crossed his arms in front of him.

"I'm sorry that brought up bad memories for you," Alfred softened his voice. "And I want you to know that I care about you. I am sorry I brought that up before you were ready," Alfred stooped down so that he could go face to face with Mathew, who looked away. "You're my brother, dude. We need to look out for each other and I can't really do that when you're mad at me. You're supposed to be older than me, right? How about you act like it."

"We don't really know who's older," Mathew sighed, finally looking into Alfred's eyes. "Sorry… Truce?"

"Truce, man," Alfred put a hand on Mathew's shoulder and smiled at him.

"Cute," Gilbert sighed sarcastically as Alfred stood up and went to move back to his spot by the fire.

"Shut up," Alfred groaned. All of a sudden, he felt a pang in his head that made him stop dead in his tracks. He felt like all of his energy was being sapped out of him and he was about ready to fall over. He held onto his head.

"Alfred, what is-" Arthur began, but he clutched at his head, too, wincing in pain.

This head pain seemed to circle around those at the fire. It went to Antonio, then Mathew, then Gilbert.

"Shit…" Alfred muttered as his eye lids struggled to stay up. He tried to take a step, but his feet seemed to fall underneath him and he fell forward. His world went black just before he was about to slam onto the ground.

* * *

This was not a normal dream. That much was certain just as soon as Alfred opened his eyes. He was practically floating in a black abyss. He was floating diagonally and he tried to flail his arms when he realized where he was. But his arms wouldn't move.

"Gah!" he yelped out as his failed flailing made him turn upside down. At least he thought it was upside down. There was nothing to look at here and his clothes stayed in the same spot, no matter where he moved. "Where the hell am I!" he called out to nobody.

"Your mind," a familiar voice giggled out.

"Shit," Alfred's eyes went wide. "Shit, shit, shit. Not you, not now…"

"Awe," Abigail's voice giggled out again and she appeared in front of Alfred, almost like she was standing on an invisible floor. "Don't be scared, Alfie," she giggled as she walked calmly towards him. Alfred was apparently the right side up, and he tried to back away, but that only succeeded in sending him flying backwards, taking multiple flips. "You can calm down," Abigail sounded annoyed. "I can't hurt you…Physically."

"Wh-what are you going to do?" Alfred stuttered out as Abigail walked calmly over to him, grabbing hold of his chin to make sure he didn't go anywhere.

"Well, we've been away from each other for some time, Alfie," Abigail smiled. "I believe it's about time we got caught up. Don't you think, dear?"

"I am not your 'dear,'" Alfred said solemnly.

Abigail's eyes turn yellow, but they stayed that way this time. "Well then, who's 'dear' are you? Arthur's?" she stopped for a moment, and then she grinned an evil grin. "Or Ivan's?"

"How the hell do you know about Ivan?" Alfred tensed.

"He's very prominent in here," Abigail grinned, obviously happy to see how it was affecting Alfred. All of a sudden, images of Ivan took over the black abyss, flooding Alfred's vision, except for where Abigail was in the way. They were all different images, except the image of him with his head blown through appeared a lot more than others.

"So, did you kill him?" Abigail asked, leaning closer into Alfred, who tried to close his eyes tight to drown out his surroundings, but his eye lids wouldn't move. So he forced himself to look at Abigail. "No? Who was it then…Arthur? Interesting. So, who is Ivan? Why don't you tell me?"

"Sh-shut up," Alfred barely managed to get out of his mouth.

"I could figure it all out right now," Abigail smirked. "I could say everything he did to you, make you writhe and scream and not be able to move, like now. I could make you get lost in these pictures. But I'm just going to do this; you won't be able to wake up until you tell me. I will continue to tease you…maybe even go a little farther. I learned a few new things from Francis today. And you will not be able to look away from Ivan. So, how about you tell me?"

"Is your only intention to torture me?" Alfred asked her. He tried to move his arm, but he found that he couldn't. He tried to blink, he couldn't. He tried to move a finger, he couldn't. He didn't even breathe.

"Oh, Alfie," Abigail snickered. "I am not going to be torturing you, too much. You're the only one knocked out right now, so I could do this all day. My intentions are two very simple things. First one, I want you to feel the way I did when I had my heart ripped out of me that day. Second one, I want your power. It's always easier to tear power from a broken man."

"You should know, I've already felt my heart get ripped out of my chest," Alfred growled at her.

"Then you'll feel it again," Abigail grinned. "And again. And again. Until I get what I want. All I want now is for you to tell me who Ivan is, and you can have your dreams back. And then I might just let you wake up."

Alfred glared at her for a while before finally speaking. "I will not tell you who Ivan is."

"Fine, then," Abigail sighed. "I guess I'll start for you!" All of the images changed around them. They changed to Mathew, his face beaten and battered to a bloody pulp. They were all exactly alike and Alfred could see tears tracing down the side of Mathew's face.

"So, Ivan tortured Mattie, right?" she looked like she was enjoying this far more than she should have been. Alfred gulped and tried to close his eyes again. It didn't work. He was forced to stare at his brother. The picture changed so that he could see the rest of his brother's body. Every inch of him had scars that were seeping crimson blood. This picture moved. Alfred watched as Mathew tumbled to the floor into a bawling mess.

"You didn't get to see this, did you?" Abigail said, almost to herself. "A little token I had to take from Mathew himself. I filled in some of the gaps so that you could really see him. This was his first month… You didn't see that whole year of torture, just glimpses. He was punched with brass knuckles, he was cut by massive blades, he was even branded by searing hot coals." Mathew's sobbing continued from the pictures around Alfred. He desperately wanted to move his arms to cover his ears and close his eyes so he wouldn't have to look. But all he could do was let tears come from his eyes. "And, as you well know, he got whipped. All courtesy of Ivan."

Abigail looked at Alfred and moved her thumb to pick up a tear coming down Alfred's cheek. "Oh, dear, don't cry yet. We haven't even gotten the full story yet."

Mathew screamed in the background.

"S-stop…" Alfred muttered. "I-I don't need to see this."

"Well, you're gonna," Abigail frowned. "I'm trying to be cooperative here, Alfred. I could easily invade your privacy and show everything you've ever thought to you right here and right now. Or I could force you to tell me what I want to hear."

"You can't force me to say anything," Alfred spoke, sounding far more confident than he was. He winced as he looked up for a fraction of a second at Mathew's pictures. A liquid that looked like water was touching his open wounds, causing him to write in pain and scream. It obviously wasn't water.

"Oh, can't I?" Abigail raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, Alfred blurted out, without his own control. "I love you, Abigail! I always have and I always will!" And then, in a fast motion in this dream, he cupped her face in his hands and began kissing her. This time, he was the one shoving his tongue in her mouth in a fever, which she gladly accepted. They kissed each other for a long time, longer than humanly possible. She was the one that eventually separated them.

"I could do this all night, honey," she said delicately, stroking Alfred's face. Alfred tried to speak, but his lips wouldn't move. "I could even reenact what has happened in the past. That might get you to talk to me."

The pictures suddenly all melted away to a stone room that Alfred recognized well. It had a bed on one side and a bookcase on the other, separated by a desk. There was a rug in the middle and there was a window. Behind Alfred was a door and now he was finally standing on solid ground. He was able to move again and he looked down at his clothes. He had on a deep red tunic with a shiny, gold belt buckle around his waist. He had black, tight fitting pants and brown boots. He was standing in the middle of the room, right on top of the rug.

He looked back up to Abigail and found her replaced by an Ivan with shining yellow eyes. Everything else was the spitting image of Ivan. The silver hair, the scarf, the childish smile, the coat. Ivan smiled, but Alfred spoke first. He didn't want to say it and he had no idea why he was saying it, but it just forced its way out of his mouth.

"We had a deal," Alfred seethed, just about ready to punch that smile off his face.

"Da," Ivan giggled. But it didn't sound like him. It sounded like some unholy mix of his voice and Abigail's. "But I did not promise anything."

"You dick!" Alfred yelled, he rocketed a fist forward, aiming for Ivan's face. But he caught it. He then pulled Alfred in close to him so Alfred was pressed against his chest. Alfred felt his face heat up. He knew where this was going and he did not want to relive this. But he couldn't speak, except for the parts he had already said in the past. Two months ago. This was going to be Hell.

"You said you would do anything I wanted, da?" Ivan asked, still having that strange voice.

"Get the hell off me!" Alfred screamed, pounding his fists against Ivan to try to let him go, to no avail.

"Make me," Ivan hummed and used his free hand to tilt Alfred's head up.

"I will k-" Alfred tried to threaten, but he was cut off by Ivan pressing his lips to his.

Alfred practically screamed, trying desperately to writhe out of Ivan's grip.

"You will do what?" Ivan asked after releasing his kiss.

"D-don't touch me!" Alfred jerked around relentlessly, trying to get away from the Ivan that wasn't really Ivan. Alfred had to keep thinking to himself, _This is not Ivan. This is not real. This is not happening._ That was the only thing Alfred was allowed to do by himself, think. But he listened and he could hear his thoughts ringing out throughout the room. _Shit_ echoed loudly.

"We had a deal," Ivan said happily, it was starting to sound more and more like Abigail every second. Using one hand, he took off Alfred's belt and then dove his hand up underneath the shirt and up to caress his chest. "I believe I can touch you wherever I want, da?"

Alfred gritted his teeth and shivered as the cold hand traced up and down his entire chest. It eventually stopped at one of his nipples and playfully toyed with it.

"S-stop that!" Alfred yelled at him. Alfred tried to get away by walking backwards, but that only ended up with him pressed against the locked door. Ivan still had a tight grip on him. Alfred was beginning to lose his thought that this wasn't real. It sure as Hell felt like it was happening. And he was dreading what happened next.

The hand on his chest soon dove down, lifting up his pants and closed tightly around Alfred's member.

"Shit…" Alfred hissed, trying to back up more into the wall. He desperately tried to ignore the incredible feeling he got from that, but it was hard.

"You will be mine, da?" Ivan muttered happily as the door cracked open and Alfred tumbled into the arms of someone behind him. He had no time to look to see who it was when he heard thunder sound off and he saw smoke flow in front of his face.

He looked back to Ivan, but he had a gaping hole in his head as he fell to the floor with a thud.

* * *

"NO!" Alfred screamed, waking up to a dark forest. He launched himself up into a sitting position and those around him tried to calm him down by stroking him with his hands. Every time he was touched, he would jerk away, again screaming at them, "NO!" After backing himself up to a tree and not listening to the worried voices around him, he looked around in search of someone. Anyone.

All of the faces around him looked familiar, but his mind couldn't recognize them at this point. Then his eyes fell on Mathew. From Alfred's clouded, still dream induced, vision, all he could see was his face covered in dried blood, his hair matted and large chunks pulled out. His clothes were in shambles and he looked weak. Oh, so very weak.

Alfred immediately launched himself at Mathew, pulling him into the tightest hug he had ever given. "Mathew…" Alfred bawled out, not caring that tears were flowing out of his eyes at an alarming rate. "Shit, Mathew… What happened to you?"

* * *

**Just want to make sure everyone knows, Mathew is fine, it's just Alfred is still thinking about what he was feeling at the time Ivan was in control of what was happening. So, he thinks Mathew is still being tortured.**

**I really like how this chapter turned out, to be honest. Even though most of it is a dream sequence, it still tells a lot about Alfred and Abigail.**

**Please review! Reviewing keeps a happy writer and a happy writer keeps giving you good writing!**

**Sealand is more likely to become a real country than I am to own Hetalia.**


	4. Fake Love

"Alfred! Calm down!" Alfred ignored the voice in the background.

"Mathew, are you okay?" Alfred cried to Mathew, who stayed quiet. But Alfred didn't care, he continued, "I promise, I won't let anything hurt you ever again!"

"Alfred!" that voice called out again and, this time, Alfred was pulled away from Mathew.

"No!" Alfred screeched, fighting back with everything he had and another set of hands worked to hold him back. "Mathew!"

"Alfred, I'm fine, look at me," Mathew's voice rung out, full of concern. Alfred looked up and Mathew's face flashed from bloody to perfect in the fire light. Alfred's fight lessened and he looked around him. Arthur and Antonio were the ones pulling him back and Gilbert looked ready to jump in and help.

"Shit…" Alfred muttered, immediately stopping his fight and dropping to the ground. He still let himself cry as he looked down at the ground.

"Alfred, are you okay?" Arthur's voice rang through Alfred's ears.

"She was in my dream," Alfred muttered, tucking his legs close to him and wrapping his arms around them. "She was in my fucking dream, dude."

"Abigail?" Mathew asked him softly.

Alfred swallowed. "Yeah."

"What was she doing?" Arthur asked him soothingly.

"Y-you don't want to know," Alfred muttered. "She almost made me lose myself."

"Could you even recognize us when you woke up?" Gilbert asked him.

"No," Alfred shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"You kept on screaming in your sleep," Antonio said. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah," Alfred nodded. He was lying. He forced himself to calm down. In all truth, he didn't want to calm down. He wanted to book it deep into the forest and leave the rest of the world behind, but he couldn't allow himself to. "I-I think I'll be alright."

"You fainted," Arthur informed him. "Do you know why?"

"I…" Alfred tried to think. "I started feeling extremely weak and light headed. At first, it was just a pain in my head, and then my legs fell underneath me. And…and I fainted before I could see myself hit the ground."

"We were all feeling weak at the time you fainted," Arthur stayed level headed somehow. "Do you think it has something to do with Abigail?"

"Definitely," Alfred nodded. He had just noticed that Arthur still had his arms wrapped around his waist from when he was pulling him off of Mathew. Arthur was sitting right behind him, his legs on either side of Alfred. Alfred began to blush.

"So, do you want me to move?" Arthur asked him, noticing Alfred becoming uncomfortable.

"No," Alfred moved his hands to hold onto Arthur's. "I-it feels nice."

Arthur moved his mouth up next to Alfred's ear and he whispered in a way that the others couldn't hear. "Do you want to talk about it now?" Alfred shook his head. Arthur sighed. "I just want you to know that I'm here when you're ready to."

Alfred slowly nodded.

"I would say we should all go to sleep," Antonio said, leaning against a tree. "But I don't think that's the best idea right now."

"What time is it?" Alfred asked.

"Late at night," Arthur said. "You were only out for a couple of hours, but none of us went to sleep. We were nervous you wouldn't wake up."

"That and your screaming wouldn't let us even close our eyes," Gilbert said.

"What was I screaming?" Alfred asked, nervous that anything in his dream was given away.

"No words," Mathew muttered. "You were just screaming…Was it about me?"

"What? No," Alfred lied hurriedly.

"Then why did you freak out when you saw me?" Mathew asked him.

"Y-You were the only person I recognized when I woke up…" Alfred rubbed the back of his head. "So I figured I could have just hugged you until I calmed down."

"I have to say," Arthur said behind Alfred, "you did make me jump when you sat up like that. What were you dreaming about?"

"I-It was nothing, really," Alfred muttered, looking at the ground. "To be honest, I can't really remember it that much anymore." That was a lie. Alfred could remember everything clearly. And he nearly shuddered at the thought.

Arthur sighed. "Right," he spoke before standing up, leaving Alfred with a small, empty feeling. "We should try to get some sleep, though."

"I've had more than enough sleep," Alfred said, scooting himself over so that he leaned against a tree. "So, I'll keep watch."

"I don't think we nearly need anyone to keep watch," Mathew said.

"Just making sure," Alfred rubbed the back of his head, "you know? And I can't really go back to sleep now, after all that happened."

"Well, I'm not wasting time," Gilbert said, waltzing over to a tree, where he sat down, leaning against the trunk, and closed his eyes. Antonio soon followed suit and they both quickly drifted off to sleep.

"If you're sure…" Mathew muttered before lying down on some grass in front of the fire.

"I guess just make sure you keep the fire going," Arthur said. "Without our magic running it, you're going to need to work a little bit."

"Yeah, okay," Alfred nodded. "No problem. I can do that."

Arthur sighed. It was obvious he wanted to say something more.

"Hey, Artie," Alfred stood up to go face to face with Arthur. "I'm fine, I promise. Okay?" Alfred delicately removed a small tuft of hair from Arthur's face, revealing his forest green eyes.

"You aren't acting fine," Arthur muttered, looking up into Alfred's eyes.

"But I am," Alfred flashed his winning smile. He chuckled slightly before saying, "I am the hero, after all. Nothing keeps a good hero down."

"But a good hero also knows when he needs help…" Arthur said softly. "A-And I think you need some of that now…"

"You know," Alfred hummed. He was desperate to change the conversation at this point. "You're actually kind of cute when you're concerned." Alfred smiled and leaned down to lightly brush his lips against Arthur's.

"I wish you would stop changing the conversation," Arthur sighed, looking down at the ground.

"I will be fine," Alfred assured him. "If I really needed to talk, I would talk to you. You know that. Or I would talk to Mathew. He is my brother, after all."

"Fine, then," Arthur sighed, defeated again. "But I'm here when you need me."

"And you always will be," Alfred grinned, stroking the side of Arthur's face and kissing him softly again.

"Better than Abigail?" Arthur asked.

Alfred laughed. "Yes, better than Abigail." He nodded happily.

"Good night," Arthur said.

"G'night," Alfred said and went back to leaning against his tree, but he didn't sit down. He watched as Arthur curled up in a spot next to the fire on the lush green grass and relaxed his breathing. Alfred sighed, this would be a long night, all to himself.

Then, Alfred saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his attention to a lone tree to his left. It looked like there was something shifting around behind it. Almost like a person. The harder Alfred looked, the more he knew someone was there. Alfred was about ready to walk over there and set that person straight, when a head popped up to the side of the tree.

It was a woman, but it was hard to see who through the limited fire light. He could make out the long, blonde hair and then brown eyes. And then there was that sly smile.

Alfred was about ready to scream, to go over to her and punch her in the face, but he suddenly couldn't move. A feeling of tiredness overwhelmed him and he had to lean against the tree so that he wouldn't fall over.

"Sh-shit…" he muttered to himself as he slid down the side of the tree. He ignored the splinters that littered his back as his eyes closed the second his butt touched the ground.

* * *

"Alfred," a voice rang through Alfred's ears and he could feel himself being shaken. "Alfred, wake up."

Alfred wearily opened his eyes to find Arthur's face right in front of his. "Hey, Arthur," Alfred yawned, fully opening his eyes. "What's up?"

"You fell asleep," Arthur grinned slightly.

"I did?" Alfred laughed.

"Yes, and we all woke up cold because no one tended the fire."

"Oops," Alfred shrugged, getting up from his position next to where the fire was. Alfred didn't know why, but he felt like he fell asleep somewhere else… "I figured that would be someone else's job, anyway," he stretched.

"You said you would do it," Arthur informed.

"I did?" Alfred asked.

"Yes," Arthur said. "You did."

"I don't remember that," Alfred muttered.

"Well, you must have been more tired that you let on," Arthur said. Alfred looked around at their camp site and no one else was there, except for them.

"So, where did everyone else go?" Alfred asked.

"They left a couple minutes ago so that they could learn their way around town," Arthur said. "We should follow their example."

"Yeah, okay," Alfred said and followed Arthur as he walked through the forest.

"Do you remember anything before you went to sleep?" Arthur asked him suddenly.

"What?" Alfred replied.

"Before you fell asleep for the second time, what's the last thing you remember?" Arthur asked, but he continued walking ahead of Alfred, not looking behind himself.

"Um, Gilbert and Antonio went to bed, and then Mathew did. And then you did, and then I did," Alfred recalled.

"So you remember your nightmare and how you reacted to it?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah," Alfred said cautiously.

"Do you remember you and I talking before I fell asleep?" Arthur asked.

"No," Alfred blinked. "We talked before you fell asleep?"

Arthur stopped. "You don't remember?"

"Did something important happen?" Alfred asked.

"No," Arthur said and continued walking. "It's just a little concerning. You seemed wide awake at the time…"

"Sorry," Alfred shrugged as the forest ended and they emerged on the town. It seemed to be midmorning and most of the people were out and about, doing whatever was needed doing.

"I think I'm going to see if I can purchase food," Arthur said. "I don't think we should live off of just what the Three Musketeers can hunt."

"I guess I can see if I can get something for us to sleep in so we don't go cold during the night," Alfred said and the two parted ways.

Alfred decided to walk around the town first to see if he could find something, but he eventually got bored and decided to look around some of the farms. He didn't look around for long, when he heard someone running towards him from behind.

"Hey, Alfie!" Abigail's voice sung as she came up next to Alfred. Alfred, in turn, twitched.

"Go away," Alfred sighed impatiently.

"Aw, what's wrong?" Abigail asked teasingly, walking next to Alfred now.

"I told you to go away," Alfred snapped.

"Here," Abigail said, gripping onto Alfred's hand tightly. When did she get this strong? "I have something I wanna show you."

She dragged Alfred along roughly and led him into a barn. She stopped leading him when they got in front of some large piles of hay.

"You wanted to show me hay?" Alfred asked, lurching his hand away.

"No, silly!" Abigail said. "I just wanna be alone with you, is all!"

"And _I _don't want to be alone with _you_," Alfred glared at her.

"Why are you so sore, dear?" Abigail grinned at the last word.

"Shut. Up," Alfred warned her.

"You aren't gonna ask me how I did it?" Abigail asked, with an edge of flirting in her voice.

"No," Alfred said bluntly. "I would just prefer you stay away from me."

"You weren't this polite to Ivan," Abigail teased.

"Be quiet," Alfred growled at her and moved to leave, but Abigail gripped onto his wrist tightly and forced him to turn around towards her. Her back was to the open barn door now.

"You know, Alfred," Abigail sighed, she grabbed hold of his other hand and moved both of them to her hips. "I still love you…Even though you crushed my heart."

"That's funny," Alfred retorted. "You don't look very crushed to me."

Abigail looked behind herself quickly and, before Alfred could see what she was looking at, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Alfred. This one was softer than the other ones she tried with him. There was no tongue, it was very simple, and it reminded Alfred of how he would kiss Arthur. Alfred still refused to kiss her back, and she separated them slowly.

"I love you, too," she spoke loudly after they separated.

"I never said…" Alfred began, but he saw someone behind Abigail, standing in the doorway. He had shaggy, blonde hair, and huge, familiar eyebrows. That was all Alfred could see before Arthur ran away.

"Wait, Arthur!" Alfred tried to yell out and get away from Abigail, but she gripped onto Alfred's wrists before he could move.

"You know, it's funny," Abigail giggled. "Grown men can sometimes act like teenage girls…"

"Let go of me," Alfred said through clenched teeth. But Abigail just moved her hands so that she held onto Alfred's hands, intertwining their fingers.

Abigail giggled.

"Alfred! Thank God I finally found you!" Mathew's voice sounded off behind them and Alfred looked behind Abigail. Mathew was panting in the doorway, he looked like he was just running. "Something happened to Francis."

* * *

**And...cliffhanger! Sorry I had to do that, it's just I couldn't continue or this chapter would be too long and end on an even worse cliffhanger. Next chapter, you'll start getting some clues about what's going on and what Abigail is doing. And you also get to see Arthur's reaction to what had just happened.**

**And please review! Without those magical letters, I wouldn't be writing this right now!**

**World peace is more likely to happen than me owning Hetalia.**


	5. Drunk

Alfred quickly followed Mathew through town, unwillingly taking Abigail in tow. She had refused to let go of his hand, still forcing their fingers to intertwine. Mathew led Alfred back to the part of town that was close to the ocean and Alfred saw a large crowd in a circle. Mathew shoved his way through the people silently and Alfred was somehow able to do the same, even with Abigail attached to him.

He found Gilbert and Antonio on the inner most part of the circle, but Arthur was nowhere to be found. He also saw those weird brunettes with the curls there. The circle was surrounding a man on the ground, sprawled out like he had fainted. But, wait…Alfred recognized that long, blonde hair. That was Francis.

"Shit…" Alfred muttered.

"Aw…" Abigail said with mock disappointment. "He's dead."

"He's not dead," Mathew said defensively. "H-he's breathing."

"What happened?" Alfred asked.

"We met up with Francis this morning," Antonio informed. "He was normal for a while, flirting with anything that moved, and then he started stumbling. After a while, he just fell onto the ground."

"He must be bewitched!" a manly voice from the background yelled out. The whole crowd agreed with him, starting to get angry. Alfred noticed that the brunettes looked over to Abigail, a helpless look in their eyes. Alfred saw Abigail nod out of the corner of his eye.

"He did it!" the lighter brunette yelled out, pointing at Gilbert.

"What!" Gilbert snapped at them and the one who just yelled yelped out and shrunk slightly behind the other one.

"We saw him send out his spirit to him!" the darker brunette said.

"It almost looked like he was sapping his energy!" the lighter brunette yelled out.

"What are you two going on about?" a deep voice sighed from the distance. The crowd parted obediently to let him through. He looked like a man of authority, he had a serious face and was of insanely strong build. He had gelled back blonde hair that seemed to be pulled back perfectly, nothing was out of place, and he had light blue eyes that seemed far too soft for his mean face. His accent reminded Alfred of Gilbert's accent. Alfred looked over to Gilbert's face for a second, and his expression showed that of complete shock and anger.

"He's a witch!" the two cried out, pointing at Gilbert. Three girls in the crowd joined them, including Abigial.

"Gilbert?" the blonde man scoffed, like he didn't believe it.

"Fuck me…" Gilbert muttered, his eyes wide. He acted like he was afraid to look away from the man.

"Mein Gott," the blonde pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright then, get this man," he gestured to Francis, "some place safe in case he wakes up like the others. Then get him," he now gestured to Gilbert, "to the jail. We will try him tomorrow."

The town moved quickly. Francis was moved in just a matter of moments.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Gilbert cried out, looking about ready to go up to the blonde and punch his lights out. "What the hell are you doing here!"

"I could ask the same thing of you, bruder," the man responded calmly.

"Um, I'm new at the whole 'other languages' thing," Alfred said nervously, almost afraid to enter the conversation. "But did he just call you his brother?"

"Yeah," Gilbert crossed his arms in front of him. "Meet Ludwig, my little brother."

"So, um," Alfred rubbed the back of his head with his free hand, "I don't get it. Does this mean he's a witch too?"

"Nein," Ludwig spoke quickly, like that subject was off limits. He turned his attention to Abigail. "Abigail, were you here to see what happened?"

"Yes, sir," Abigail spoke, but she seemed completely changed from last time she spoke. Her voice was more innocent and softer. It was full of urgency that seemed slightly false to Alfred. "I was here for the whole scene! And I watched as the man with the devil eyes looked at that more man happily as he fell to the ground! I'm sure it was his spirit that attacked him."

"Um," Alfred spoke, "I'm pretty sure that-" he was cut off by Abigail's foot stomping hard onto his own. "Ow!" Alfred yelled out as he leaned over to hold onto his foot.

"See!" Abigail spoke excitedly. "He's doing it again!"

"That wasn't a spirit," Alfred growled at her. "That was your foot!"

"So what is your name?" Ludwig asked Alfred.

"Alfred," Alfred said. "Alfred F. Jones."

"Well, I can see Abigail is quite taken with you," Ludwig said. "It would do you well to stay with her. She's a saint."

"A saint, eh?" Alfred asked, looking to Abigail.

Gilbert scoffed. "Far from it. Francis told me 'bout what she did with him last night."

"I did no such thing with him!" Abigail spouted out defensively. "Ask my mother! I was with her all night!"

"Ask Francis when he wakes up," Gilbert crossed his arms. "He'll know the truth."

"I will not have lies be told about me by a witch!" Abigail yelled at him.

"They're not lies, sweetie," Gilbert smiled slightly.

"Yes, they are!" Abigail shouted.

"Gilbert, calm down," Ludwig sighed.

"I'm perfectly calm," Gilbert laughed slightly. "She's the one freaking out."

Abigail scoffed. "Come on, Alfie, we're going," she started dragging him off to the side. She practically glared at the brunettes and they followed them closely behind.

"Will you stop dragging me?" Alfred complained. Abigail stopped and stood there for a second. Then, she turned around and used both of her hands to stroke Alfred's chest.

"Come on, Alfie," she said soothingly. " Stop pretending you don't like me." Then she kissed him again. Softly, like last time, but she had a slight fever to her when she kissed him.

Alfred tried to force her off of him, but he found that it was hard. She had gotten stronger somehow…

"Where are my manners!" Abigail said suddenly after they separated. She turned Alfred around to the two brunettes. They were standing their awkwardly, like what they had just seen made them uncomfortable. "This is Feli and Lovi. They're, like, my bestest friends!"

"Um, hi," Alfred said rather irritably. He didn't really care, to be honest.

"And this is Alfred," Abigail said to the two. "He's my new lover."

"You know you're not supposed to kiss in public, right?" Feli asked.

"Psh! Like I care!" Abigail scoffed. "No one around here can tell me what to do," she said, clinging onto Alfred's arm.

"Get off," Alfred said the minute she touched him.

Abigail hummed and snuggled more into his arm. "Nope."

"Then how about I help you get off," Alfred said, using his free arm to try and pry her off. Alfred noticed that Lovi and Feli were staring at him in wonder. "What? Is it weird to see someone try to shake off a stalker?"

"No," Lovi said. "We've just never seen anyone with the guts to deny Abby what she wants."

"Yeah, well I've been doing it since I was 2,"Alfred sighed and Abigail elbowed him harshly.

"What?" Feli asked, tilting his head. "You met her before? I would have figured I would recognize you."

"Oh, right," Alfred grinned. "I forgot everyone here was under your spell, Abby!"

Abigail stomped on his foot hard, causing him to double over and grab onto his foot. "My name is Abigail," she seethed for a moment, before quickly composing herself. "I'm sorry," she spoke to Feli and Lovi, "he's a bit delirious sometimes." They nodded furiously, like they were afraid of saying no.

"So, how many were killed today?" Abigail asked them.

"Four," Feli piped up. "Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah Wildes."

"That's five, dipshit," Lovi snapped at him.

"Next month, there'll be five more, correct?" Abigail asked and the two nodded at the same time. "I hope that damn Elizabeth Proctor gets hanged soon…"

"Well, aren't you nice?" Alfred snapped at her.

"She's a bitch, she has it coming to her," Abigail waved away his comment. "I accused her myself, after all. I should know what she's like."

"How the hell you're a saint," Alfred glared at her, "I'll never know."

"How you could love someone of your own gender, I'll never know," Abigail retaliated.

"That's fine by me," Alfred glared at her. "Now, if you'll finally excuse me, I would like to be anywhere but here right now." With that, Alfred left, ignoring any protests that came from Abigail. He decided to go back to where the circle was, but that was empty, practically forgotten by the townsfolk.

Gilbert was gone, probably taken to the jail. Alfred scratched his head, he didn't really know what to do at this point. He knew he had to find out what happened to Francis, and he had a feeling it was Abigail. Right now, though, he wanted to figure out what mind control Abigail had over this town. Apparently she was a saint, so he should check the church first.

One problem: he didn't know where the church was.

He decided to go on his search near the ocean, where he passed a rather loud building. There was laughter and loud talking, it was obviously the bar of the town. He heard a loud spurt of laughter come from inside. It sounded like nearly 10 men were inside. And then one voice rang out, louder than all the others.

"Gah, bloody hell!" the familiar voice of Arthur shouted out and Alfred felt himself frown. The voice didn't sound like the ethical Arthur he knew, it sounded like someone who was drunk off his ass.

Alfred sighed as he swung the door open and found the crowd of the bar standing around Arthur, who was flat on his back, staring at the ceiling. He looked like he was trying and failing to get up. Alfred noticed immediately that the room was blazing warm compared to outside, but as Arthur failed once again to try to get up, it turned ice cold in an instant. Everyone else was probably far too drunk to understand what just happened.

"Arthur," Alfred groaned to himself as he walked through the crowd and stood, looming over Arthur.

"Oi, it's you!" Arthur was able to roll over onto his stomach. "Where the 'ell have you been?"

"For once, being more responsible than you," Alfred crossed his arms.

"What the 'ell are you talking 'bout?" Arthur slurred.

Alfred sighed. "You're drunk, Arthur," he said as he kneeled down to go face to face with Arthur. "I think you're gonna need some sleep right about now."

"And yur gonna make meh?" Arthur complained.

"Yes," Alfred nodded and gripped one of Arthur's arms.

"Oi! Let go of meh!" Arthur whined as Alfred forced him to stand up.

"It's okay, I got you," Alfred said, steadying Arthur as he wobbled. He helped Arthur wrap one arm around his shoulder to help steady him and he walked slowly out of the bar with him. "Could you promise me you'll stay quiet while we go through town?" he asked hopefully.

"It's bloody cold out here," Arthur complained and Alfred felt a massive amount of heat surround them. He looked down at the ground and a fire lit right behind Arthur, where he had just previously stepped. Alfred quickly stomped it out.

"A drunk witch," Alfred sighed. "This is fun…"

"Don't use that tone with meh!" Arthur slurred, pointing a shaky finger at Alfred. "I wasn't very happy when I saw you kissin' Abby!"

"I didn't kiss her, she kissed me," Alfred said quickly, before pausing his speech a moment. He then looked at Arthur skeptically. "Is that why you're so drunk right now? Because of Abby?"

"What the hell are you bloody talkin' about?" Arthur snapped at him. "Ah drank 'cause I wanted to!"

Alfred chuckled. "I didn't think of you as the kind of person to drink away their sorrows, Artie."

"I should hit ya right now, you know that?" Arthur said, but his head nodded a little bit in sleepiness.

"You wouldn't dream of it, would you?" Alfred teased him as they entered the forest.

Arthur didn't talk for a while, he just stared at Alfred.

"Has anyone told you you're sexy?" Arthur asked suddenly and Alfred stopped walking.

"What?" Alfred asked him, stunned.

Alfred smirked. "Ya are." He stood on his tiptoes, barely able to balance in his drunken state, and gave Alfred a sloppy kiss.

"Arthur, you're drunk," Alfred reminded him. "Stop before you do something you'll regret."

"You gonna stop me?" Arthur grinned, moving his hand to flick at Alfred's cowlick.

"Yes," Alfred said angrily, holding onto Arthur's wrist. "We are going back to our camp right now and then you are going to sleep."

"Only if you go with me," Arthur teased.

"Arthur, you're drunk," Alfred repeated himself again. "It's not attractive."

"What if you got drunk, too?" Arthur asked.

"I'm fine," Alfred said as he continued to move through the forest again.

"You're mean," Arthur complained and the air around them turned ice cold. After just a minute, Alfred could see what looked like a snowflake float just in front of his face.

"Please don't make it snow on us," Alfred sighed, waving away the flake.

"What the 'ell are you talkin' about?" Arthur began tripping over himself and he was looking more and more tired.

"Never mind, it'll probably go away when you go to sleep."

"Oi, Alfie," Arthur said after a while of tripping over himself. He didn't wait for Alfred to respond. "Why the hell do you like me so much?"

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked.

"I'm a bloody idiot," Arthur chuckled as they got to their camp. And Arthur conveniently chose this time to sink to his knees on the ground. "An' I'm not that impressive. I'm just a fool who keeps causin' you trouble."

Alfred knelt down in front of Arthur and moved some of the hair out of his face.

"I'll tell you this much," Alfred smiled at him. "I don't know how many drinks you've downed, but it must have been a lot, considering your state. And I have to say, downing that much and still being conscious…that's pretty damn impressive to me."

Arthur hiccupped and grinned.

"Thanks, love," he slurred out before his eyes closed and he fell backwards onto the ground.

"And now you're not conscious."

* * *

**To be honest, that last line, I would have done in real life in that kind of situation... Kinda funny... And for once I didn't end on a cliffhanger! It's amazing!**

**So, this chapter was mainly to show Abigail's grasp on the town and the power that she holds not just as a witch. And then there's also the Francis thing. I wonder if anyone can figure out who did it! *cough, cough* sarcasm *cough, cough* There's also Arthur getting drunk because he was upset. I raelly wanted to put a sequence in Witch! where Arthur has his drinking problem come into play, but it never happened. I also wanted to get his cooking in Witch! too, but that didn't happen either. Good thing this came out so I could put those sequences in, eh?**

**Please review! So that I can end on a cliffhanger, next time!**

**And, um, I'm too lazy to put some kind of joke here, so I don't own anything.**


	6. Plan?

"What the hell did you do to him?" Antonio demanded when he and Mathew came back from town. Alfred had moved Arthur next to the fire he started and had sat there, watching over him, for a while now.

"I didn't do anything!" Alfred said defensively, throwing a log into the fire. "He just got drunk and passed out. I had to save him."

"Arthur got drunk?" Antonio demanded. "How did the town not burst into flames?"

"He's done that before?" Alfred asked.

"Just imagine all the magic inside him," Antonio said, "uncontrolled. When witches get drunk, their magic usually goes haywire. And Arthur's the worst drunk I've ever seen."

"Well, I'm sure he's not the only drunk witch in the world," Alfred said defensively.

"Yeah, I've seen Gilbert nearly pass out from the alcohol he's taken in," Antonio said.

"And I've seen Francis get pretty far," Mathew said.

"But they're not nearly as powerful as Arthur," Antonio said. "Thank God he passed out."

"You know, he's kinda cute when he's sleeping," Alfred hummed, moving some hair from Arthur's face.

"So you _do_ still love him," Antonio said.

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked him.

"You and Abby seemed pretty close today…" Mathew muttered.

"God! That was her!" Alfred yelled, looking up. "She's bugging the hell out of me! Why can't she stop doing that!"

"You two are becoming the talk of the town," Antonio said, leaning against a tree.

"Great," Alfred sighed sarcastically.

"Have you tried setting her straight?" Mathew offered.

"I don't think the word 'reason' is even in her vocabulary," Alfred groaned. "I don't think she's ever going to give up."

"What does she want, anyway?" Mathew asked.

"I don't know!" Alfred complained.

"Do you think she had anything to do with what happened to Francis?" Antonio asked.

"I don't 'think'," Alfred said. "I know."

"Why do you think she sent Gilbert off to the jail?" Mathew asked.

"I don't know," Alfred sighed. "Probably another part of her scheme." Alfred thought for a moment. "Did you know about Ludwig?"

"Yeah," Antonio sighed. "He's Gilbert's little brother. He's not a witch, last time I checked, and they don't get along all that well."

"He told me he ran away from home because of him," Mathew muttered.

"He actually told you some of his past?" Antonio asked Mathew.

"Um, yeah," Mathew blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. "It was after some things happened…and…"

"Please don't continue," Alfred stopped him. "So, it's down to just us four right now…"

"Three if he keeps drinking," Antonio nodded to Arthur

"Aw, I don't think he will," Alfred said hopefully.

"Just try to keep Abby off you," Mathew said.

"We need a plan," Antonio sighed. "If all that has happened is going according to her plan, more like this will happen."

"So, first, we need to figure out what she's doing," Alfred said.

"I have a thought," Mathew said. "I remember before Alfred passed out last night, we were all feeling extremely weak. I felt like I was getting the energy sapped out of me."

"Me, too," Alfred agreed.

"And so if I go off of that and Francis saying that he was feeling weak right before he passed out…" Mathew said. "I think she's sapping our energy."

"That would make sense if she's doing it to all of us at once," Antonio said. "Francis is the weakest of us in terms of power."

"And I felt her get stronger around the time Francis passed out," Alfred said.

"What kind of witch is that?" Mathew asked Antonio.

"I don't know all the different kinds of witches," Antonio shrugged. "That's Arthur's area of expertise."

"And he's out cold," Alfred sighed.

"He probably knows everything about them," Antonio said.

"There is another person that will know about them," Alfred said.

"Abigail," Mathew said.

"I think I could get something out of her," Alfred offered. "She's freaking obsessed with me, so if I fake that I love her, too, she might tell me something."

"What about Arthur?" Mathew asked.

"As long as he's out, I don't think it'll be a problem," Alfred said. "Look, I don't want to do it, but we need to find these things out before the thing that happened to Francis happens again."

"I think we should wait until Arthur wakes up," Antonio said. "It took her an entire day to get to Francis. It will probably take her longer to do it again."

"I don't think we should take chances like that," Alfred argued and tried to stand up, but he found that he couldn't. His vision began to swim and he started to feel extremely weak. "I-it's happening again," Alfred said.

"Yeah, I can feel it," Antonio said.

Alfred moved his head to look over to Mathew, but he passed out before he had the chance.

* * *

Alfred woke up surrounded by that familiar abyss. He still found that he couldn't move.

"You know I can hear everything you say, Alfie," Abigail's irritated voice sounded out, but she didn't appear.

"Well, good," Alfred snapped at her. "I should talk more shit about you then."

Now Abigail appeared in front of Alfred. Her face was beyond pissed off. "Don't make me hit you," she threatened him with a finger pointed at his chest.

"I thought you said you couldn't hurt me physically here," Alfred grinned.

"I could hit your pride," Abigail offered. "Or your sanity."

"Give it your best shot," Alfred challenged. He couldn't help but smile. He was making Abigail irritated and he didn't even have to try. "So, what did you do to Francis?"

"_I _did nothing," Abigail said. "It's just natural for my magic to find power and take it," she leaned against Alfred now, playing on his chest with her fingers. "I've always been attracted to power. And even though yours is waning now, I'm still in love with it."

"So that's why you're only bugging me," Alfred chuckled. "Because you care more about power than personality."

"That could be true," Abigail shrugged. "I had to say I kind of liked Arthur the minute I saw him, but you still stood out over him. I encountered many witches coming here, but none of them were quite as strong as you. Which led me to wonder, what are you? Because I know for a fact, you aren't a witch. And neither is Mathew, so why are you so powerful if you don't have magic?"

"That's a good question," Alfred smiled at her. "Like Hell do I know. Mathew knew he was special long before me. I've known I'm special for about 2 months. And I don't get it yet. How about I ask you some questions. Like how I'm the only one having these dreams? Or why you're choosing me to torture?"

"Because you're the most powerful," Abigail said, making circles on Alfred's chest. "You're the one that will react the most to all of that power being lost. And you're the one that's holding onto that power the most. You may not know much about it, but it seems pretty damn important to you."

"How about another question?" Alfred asked. "What did you do to Francis?"

"I'm not gonna tell you just yet," Abigail said, she was finally getting all of her confidence back from the sound of her voice. "I think it's more fun to watch you try to figure it all out. You're not a very good detective, but that's okay because you have 4 others in front of you before you fall. Plenty of time, right?"

"What if I figure it out before then?" Alfred asked. He did know that it was her sapping energy, but from her reaction, it seemed like there was more now to figure out.

"You won't," Abigail said confidently. "But if you do, there is no way that you can get me to stop. That's the fun part, even if you figure it out, I'll still get all of your power. Because there's no way to stop me."

"Well don't you sound confident?" Alfred mocked. "I guess I have two riddles to figure out then, eh? What you're doing, and how to stop you."

"Good luck doing it," Abigail grinned.

"So, you aren't gonna torture me tonight?" Alfred asked. "And I was so looking forward to it, too."

Abigail smiled. "Don't you worry, I know what I'm doing. I've done it so much already, it's starting to become a game now. This will be the first time I'm gonna try to keep all of the power."

"How many times have you done this before?" Alfred raised an eyebrow.

"Far too many to count," Abigail laughed. "I've caused many a panic in so many towns. And I can say happily that I caused maybe a hundred deaths."

"You can say that happily?" Alfred's voice nearly turned to a growl, but he caught himself and made himself look confident again.

"It's all a part of the sport, dear," Abigail teased. "Find out how many you can make go down before you do. You should try it, but I think you already have."

"No torture today, remember?" Alfred said.

"Didn't promise anything," Abigail sighed. "Even if I did," her voice changed for the next couple words, it almost sounded like Alfred's voice, "I'm not very good at keeping my promises."

Alfred twitched. "Shut up, I'm waking up now."

"I never said you could wake up," Abigail teased.

"I'm pretty damn sure this is _my_ dream. I control what happens in _my_ dream," Alfred said.

"Then why can't you move?" Abigail grinned.

"Because I'm just so stricken with you," Alfred said sarcastically, "I can't bring it in myself to move."

"Say hi to Arthur for me, then," Abigail grinned as she faded away, into the abyss.

* * *

Alfred woke up with his back on the ground. He gasped when his eyes opened, but he sat up slowly. His head hurt, he noticed, but that was the only thing unusual. The fire was still going and it looked like Antonio was asleep against a tree. Alfred looked to his left and found that he was lying right next to Arthur.

"So you're awake?" Mathew asked him. Alfred looked over to the other side of the fire and Mathew was there, poking at it with a stick.

"Yeah," Alfred nodded. "My dream was a hell of a lot better than last time."

"Sure seems like it," Mathew nodded. "Was Abigail there again?"

"Um…" Alfred thought for a second. He would need help figuring out what Abigail just told him, and figure out what she was doing…But she also told him that there was no way to stop her…Saying that might cause them to panic and then they might not be so level headed. Alfred knew it was stupid, but he couldn't think that well right now. He needed a little more time, then we would tell them. "No, not really. At least, not that I can remember."

Mathew sighed. "Okay, then," he stood up and moved to the side. "If you're awake now, I hope you'll be able to stay awake this time over night?"

"Maybe you better just stay up," Alfred said. He really just wanted someone to talk to.

"I guess so…" Mathew said, looking at Alfred. But his gaze drifted above his head and stayed there. "A-Abi-" Mathew fell onto the ground.

Alfred quickly stood up and turned around. He saw Abigail hiding behind trees and memories returned from the night before, when she came last time. This time, though, she pushed a finger to her lips and winked at him. Alfred tried to move forward, go towards her, but his legs turned to jelly and he fell to the ground. He felt himself hit something soft before his vision went black.

* * *

**I'm so sorry this chapter sucks and it's kinda short, but it's all I got. It's kinda a filler and that makes me sad, but I hope it's alright...**

**Um, please review, so I can put up a better chapter next time!**

**Hetalia is more likely to stop being racist than I am to own Hetalia.**


	7. Forget

"Will you get the hell off of me?" Alfred's dreamless sleep was interrupted by someone's voice yelling in his ear.

Alfred blearily opened his eyes, seeing the bright sunlight coming through the tree tops. "Huh?" he mumbled out.

"I said to get the hell off me," Arthur snapped. Alfred looked around and realized that he was lying on his back…on top of Arthur.

"Jesus Christ," Alfred said, rolling off of Arthur. "How did that happen?"

"I would like to know, too," Arthur sighed, sitting up straight. "First I wake up with a splitting headache, and now I have a back ache from your fat arse."

"I'm not fat," Alfred argued.

"Yeah, sure," Arthur waved him away, clutching his head. "Ow."

"Hung over?" Alfred asked, smiling slightly.

"I don't even remember most of yesterday…" Arthur sighed.

"Not even calling me sexy?" Alfred smiled.

"God, I said that?" Arthur asked shakily.

Alfred laughed. "Yeah, ya did. It was actually kind of cute. I've never seen you drunk before."

"Well, it's not going to happen again," Arthur sighed. "God, I feel horrible… D-Did I light anything of fire? I've done that before…"

"Just the ground," Alfred said. "But I stomped it out."

"Good, then," Arthur groaned, still clutching onto his head.

"Should I get you ice or something to put on your head?" Alfred asked him.

"No," Arthur shook his head slightly. "I'll be fine. Just try not to be as loud as you usually are."

"Hey, I'm not that loud!" Alfred defended himself.

"You just were," Arthur winced.

"Hey, I have a question…" Alfred rubbed the back of his head. "Do…do you remember why you started drinking yesterday?"

"I don't remember much well from yesterday," Arthur shook his head.

"Really?" Alfred's eyes widened. "That's great!"

"What did you do, Alfred?" Arthur asked him.

"I-I didn't do anything!" Alfred protested.

"Fine," Arthur sighed, looking way too tired for an argument. "So, did anything happen yesterday that I missed?"

"Oh, um, yeah…" Alfred muttered. "Um, Francis kind of passed out and wouldn't wake up. Abigail got a lot of people to agree with her in saying that it was Gilbert's fault. And then his brother showed up, and now Gilbert's in jail and I have no idea where Francis is…"

Arthur stared at him for a second.

"How can I not remember that?" Arthur asked.

"Well, you weren't there in the first place," Alfred rubbed the back of his head. "You were a little busy getting drunk off your ass."

"Shut up about that," Arthur nearly glared at him.

"But it was funny!" Alfred laughed. "You couldn't even walk straight!"

"Dear God, what possessed me to do that?" Arthur sighed.

"Alfred," Antonio sighed. Alfred looked over to him, he was still leaning against his tree and looking like he was just waking up.

"Don't make me say it again," Alfred sighed. "It was all Abigail's fault!"

"Stop complaining and wake up your brother," Antonio sighed, standing up. "I'll catch Arthur up with what he missed. You two should get into town, too. Get food because I don't remember eating anything yesterday."

"Oh, right, I thought we needed something," Alfred said, getting up and moving over to Mathew. "Hey, Mattie," Alfred kicked his hand lightly. "Time to wake up, sleepy head."

Mathew slowly opened his eyes up.

"Why does my head hurt so much?" Mathew asked once he woke up.

"I dunno, slept on a rock?" Alfred shrugged.

"Whatever," Mathew sighed, sitting up.

"Wanna go into town?" Alfred asked him, holding out a hand to help him up.

"Yeah, I'm hungry," Mathew said as Alfred helped him up.

"Sweet," Alfred smiled. "Hey Arthur, how much money do we have left?"

"I don't know," Arthur called over to him, stopping Antonio from his talking for a second. "I had a lot to start out with, but most of it was spent on the boat ride here."

"And then there was your drinking spree…" Alfred grinned.

"Which I still don't remember," Arthur pointed out. He sighed. "Just take whatever money we have left. We'll make money here eventually. Might as well have food while we do so."

"We've been meaning to ask you since last night," Antonio spoke now. "We were discussing Abigail and her powers."

"We were?" Alfred and Mathew asked together.

"Yes," Antonio looked over at them skeptically. "We were saying how we think she saps energy from us."

"We were?" Alfred asked and looked at Mathew, who looked just as confused as Alfred was.

"How do you not remember?" Antonio asked irritably.

"This happened before with Alfred," Arthur said, looking slightly concerned. "Now both of them?"

"What are you talking about?" Mathew asked. "I don't think we ever talked about Abigail last night."

"What's the last thing you two remember before falling asleep?" Arthur asked them.

"I remember Antonio and I were coming back from town and we saw you passed out," Mathew said. "Alfred explained what happened and we just went to bed."

"That's what I remember, too," Alfred nodded. "I brought you back here and you passed out. They came back, and then we all went to sleep."

"But that's not what happened," Antonio crossed his arms. "After he explained what happened with Arthur, we started talking about Abigail. Then Alfred passed out, like yesterday."

"I did?" Alfred asked.

"You two, go into town," Arthur said. "We need to talk a bit alone about this."

Mathew and Alfred nodded. Alfred went and got the money in a stash they had in the knot of a tree and they left through the woods into town.

"I just think they're going crazy," Alfred said, stretching.

"I don't remember talking about Abigail at all…" Mathew muttered. "Is it a bad thing that I forgot?"

"You didn't forget anything," Alfred sighed. He couldn't help but think, though. He still remembered that dream he got with Abigail. That should only happen when he passes out from feeling weak. And what she said, too. The fact that nothing could stop her. And how Alfred had to figure out what she was doing…

"But, the problem is, I don't remember going to sleep in the first place," Mathew said quietly.

Alfred thought for a moment. He tried to remember falling to sleep. But nothing came to mind. And how he woke up on top of Arthur…

"My head feels like it hit something, too," Mathew said. "Maybe…Abigail made me pass out like she did with you that one time. But I didn't have a dream…"

"I don't know, Mattie," Alfred sighed. "But nothing can be done if we dwell on it for long. What's done is done, let's just move on, okay?"

"Fine," Mathew said in a small voice.

"Okay," Alfred said as they got into town. "Where do you think we can find some food?"

"Well, there are a lot of farmers here," Mathew offered. "They probably have cattle or something, and they might be selling the meat."

"That would be nice…" Alfred said to himself. "I haven't had beef in a long time, now."

"Then, let's go look around," Mathew said as they continued walking into the town.

"Did you hear?" Alfred heard one woman say as her and two other women passed them by. "Apparently that white haired man was accused a witch."

"Yes, I heard," another woman agreed as Alfred stopped walking. Mathew continued for a bit longer before stopping and turning around to give him a strange look. Alfred pressed a finger to his lips, telling him to be quiet.

"He made the flirt faint, right?" one of the women giggled at the thought of Francis.

"Who accused him?" the first woman said.

"Abigail," a second woman whispered and it seemed like they all shivered.

"How many does that make that she's accused?" the first woman asked.

"There's far too many to count now," the third sighed. "I feel bad for that one Abigail's taken in. Lord knows how she's twisting his mind."

"It's a shame, too," the first woman sighed dreamily. "He's kind of cute. I wouldn't mind getting him to myself."

"What about that short haired blonde?" the second giggled. "Besides the eyebrows, he's perfect."

"I like the Spaniard the best…" the third laughed.

Alfred continued walking, not wanting to hear the rest of what they were saying.

"Why is it that I'm always ignored?" Mathew sighed.

"No one said you were ignored," Alfred assured him.

Mathew laughed. "They're talking about which one they like best, and I don't' even come into conversation. I look just like you, too. That's the funny part."

"It's the personality they like best," Alfred said proudly and Mathew playfully hit him in the side.

"Every time," Mathew laughed.

"Did you like it better in Europe?" Abigail's voice rang out and Alfred stopped again. He felt his eye twitch. "From what I've heard, you got _plenty_ of attention there."

Mathew shuddered and Alfred turned around to glare at Abigail, who was flanked on both sides by Feli and Lovi.

"Shut. Up." Alfred warned her.

"Oh, but I heard so much about it!" Abigail said excitedly. "For a whole year, I think, no one ignored you. All attention was directed at you, yes?"

"H-how did you know a-about that?" Mathew started shaking, but he refused to turn around.

"Go away, Abby," Alfred growled at her.

"Why, Alfie told me, of course!" Abigail said happily, almost too happily. "He can sure talk a lot when he wants to!"

"Abigail, I'm warning you!" Alfred stepped towards her, he could feel himself gritting his teeth.

"Alfred?" Mathew's voice squeaked.

"It was two days ago, actually, wasn't it, Alfie?" Abigail grinned at Alfred. "It was right after you said your baby of a brother ran away into the woods."

"Mattie, I didn't say that!" Alfred growled. "I swear!"

"Oh, you talked a lot, Alfie," Abigail continued. "You said that man…Ivan, was it? You talked about all the things he did to Mattie. Now, that doesn't sound very ignored to me. What about you, Feli?"

Feli squeaked in response. Alfred heard movement behind him and he looked to find Mathew running in the opposite direction.

"Dammit, Abigail!" Alfred nearly exploded. It took everything he had to not hit her as hard as he could. "I don't give a shit if you torture me! But if you go this far and do that to Mathew, that is crossing the line!"

"And what are you going to do?" Abigail crossed her arms. "You can't touch me here."

"That's it," Alfred growled. He was throwing a tantrum now, he knew it, but he couldn't control himself at this point."I'm gonna find Ludwig! And I'm going to tell him everything I know. That you're a witch! That you're a slut. That you're a... That you're a bitch!"

Alfred began muttering to himself as he stormed away, not caring what Abigail was telling him after he got away. He stormed around town, trying to find the church, but all he found were houses and what he was told was the dungeon. Eventually, he got to the line of buildings bordering the shoreline, but he still didn't find anything there.

He did see someone familiar, though. But it wasn't who he was looking for.

"Oi, Alfred," Antonio said, seeing him. "Good news, Arthur remembers yesterday."

"Oh, yes, very good news," Alfred sighed. "Now he remembers why he drunk himself silly."

"He did seem pretty irritated when I left him," Antonio said.

"Bound to be," Alfred groaned. "I have enough to deal with. What with Abigail-"

"You called?" Abigail giggled, coming up behind Alfred and stroking his chin as she came in front of him.

"No, I didn't," Alfred glared at her.

"Hey, Antonio, you should leave," Abigail said loudly behind herself, keeping eye contact with Alfred the whole time.

"I think I'm going to leave now," Antonio said, but he didn't sound like himself.

"Come on," Alfred sighed. "Don't leave me alone with her!"

"So, how have you been doing with your detective skills?" Abigail asked him, leaning close to him, her hands on his chest. "Not very well I suppose."

"Well, I'm sorry, I've been a bit distracted," Alfred snapped at her. "And I also think you got Mattie pissed at me again!"

"How's about I give you a hint, since I'm nice like that?" Abigail said, ignoring what Alfred had just said completely. "I've been giving you a couple, actually."

"And then you keep on taking them away," Alfred crossed his arms. "Those memory lapses, I think?"

Abigail giggled. "My hint: The more you lose your power, the more mine grows exponentially."

"You're sapping our power," Alfred felt his eyes go wide. He felt a small pang in his head as memories returned from the night before. Antonio _was_ right…

"Oh, but that's not it," Abigail giggled, squinting her eyes slightly. "The fun thing about witches and…whatever you and Mattie are… is that your power is also your life force. Once it's all gone, you die."

"Does that mean Francis…" Alfred muttered.

"The only reason he's passed out is because his body is in shock of the loss of power," Abigail informed. "Eventually, though, all of his power will go to me. And all of his life force. It's funny, I didn't know this until yesterday, but I can also learn their native language from doing this. I can speak fluent French now." Abigail's eyes flashed yellow. "And you know what? I think I just learned German."

Alfred stepped back, to get out of Abigail's grasp. "No…" Alfred muttered. "No, not now."

He quickly turned away from her, running to where he remembered the dungeon was. He ran as fast as he could and his legs felt shaky. He hoped deep inside Gilbert was still standing. But, when he got to the dungeon, he found that the door was wide open. Out of it came two men carrying a passed out Gilbert.

* * *

**I made this chapter logner, to make up for the last chapter and it's suckyness... This one's not too much better, but you can't cut me down for trying!**

**Please review! It makes me feel better about myself and then I'll start writing better chapters!**

**Abigail is more likely to get Alfred in the end than I am to own Hetalia.**


	8. Stars

"No," Alfred shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no! Not Gilbert!"

To say Alfred was freaking out would be an understatement. He was beyond pissed, but he didn't know what to do with all of that anger. He couldn't go yell at Abigail, on account of the fact that he would probably strangle her. He couldn't talk to Mathew or Arthur, he was mad and that would prove to do nothing but harm. He didn't know where the hell anybody was…

"What's going on?" Ludwig's voice asked behind Alfred. Sure. Now he shows up.

"Gilbert freaking passed out," Alfred sighed, trying to calm himself down, and ran his hand through his hair. "Just like Francis did." Alfred felt like pacing.

"What?" Ludwig asked and Alfred nearly looked at him like he was crazy. He sounded…concerned. This was the first time Alfred heard any emotions in his voice, and it was this one. He couldn't have seemed to care less about Gilbert the day before, and now he seemed genuinely concerned. "Where was he taken?"

"I dunno," Alfred shrugged. "I guess the same place as Francis."

Without another word, Ludwig stalked quickly to where Alfred saw Gilbert being carried. Curious, Alfred followed. They came up to a two-story house and Alfred followed Ludwig through the door and up the stairs. There were four beds, two of them occupied. In one was Francis, in the other was Gilbert. They looked like they were sleeping soundly, almost like there was nothing in the world that could disturb them. It was kind of weird, Alfred couldn't remember ever seeing them asleep. It was weird not seeing Gilbert's snow white hair accompanied with ruby red eyes. It was weird not seeing Francis waltzing around flamboyantly, flirting with anything in the room.

Alfred shuddered, it reminded him of months ago. He shook his head harshly. No. They weren't dead. Not yet, at least he could still stop what was happening.

But still, Alfred couldn't help but remember. He watched them all go one by one, and his mind couldn't handle it then. He could feel himself having troubles handling it now. He didn't want that to happen again. He fell last time, he fell hard. He still wasn't even fully brought back yet. Alfred's head started hurting.

He had to tell someone what he was thinking. What was wrong. If this was going to happen again, Alfred wouldn't be able to handle it. He had to tell or he was going to go insane. Even more so than last time.

Alfred looked out the window and saw that familiar shag of blonde hair. Arthur. Perfect.

Alfred quickly ran down the stairs of the house and soon came out of the front door. It took him a while of looking, but he eventually found Arthur walking calmly away from the house. Alfred ran up to him.

"Hey, Arthur," he called out, hoping not to make too big of a commotion around them. Arthur turned around, his face was angry.

"What?" Arthur replied quickly as Alfred finished catching up with them.

"I-I have something to tell you," Alfred said awkwardly. He knew Arthur would be mad at him, but he didn't expect this…

"Shouldn't you be a little busy somewhere else?" Arthur seemed like he couldn't care less about what Alfred had to say. "Like shoving your tongue down Abigail's throat?"

That did it for Alfred. He felt his eye twitch slightly.

"Arthur…" Alfred said through clenched teeth as a warning.

"You can't threaten me," Arthur said irritably. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I-" Arthur moved to turn away, but Alfred gripped his shoulders tightly, forcing him to face Alfred.

"Arthur, you are going to listen whether you give a shit or not," Alfred growled, trying not to yell and attract any attention. "Gilbert fainted, just like Francis." At this, Arthur's eyes went wide. "Now, if you would stop acting like a bitch and paid attention to anyone other than yourself, maybe you would know about these things once in a while!"

Alfred didn't know why he said that. Immediately after it came out of his mouth, he regretted it. This wasn't good, he was supposed to talk with Arthur, not take out his frustrations on him. But, Alfred was starting to get really pissed now. He didn't dare talk, though, he didn't trust himself that much.

So he ran instead. He turned right around and ran as fast as his feet could carry him. He didn't care how many people he ran into, how many animals he stepped on, it didn't matter. He had to get away and his head was hurting something terrible. He kept running, even when he felt hard wood smacking into him as he ran through the forest. He ran until he came up to their little clearing. There was a large black spot where they were burning the fire every night and it looked deserted.

Before Alfred knew what he was doing, he ran up to a tree, kicking the thing as hard as he could. "Dammit!" he shouted as loudly as he could. He was holding back tears now, he was so angry. But, was it really anger anymore? Alfred turned around and kicked up some grass. "God, dammit!" he shouted a little quieter this time.

He started pacing, getting quicker and quicker with each lap. He didn't know what to do. He needed to talk to someone, but Mathew was God knows where and he and Arthur were not getting along well. He would _not_ talk to Antonio about this. He needed to talk it out before Abigail used it against him, which he knew she would.

Who was going to be next? Mathew? No. Alfred wouldn't be able to handle that. This whole thing was making him insane! He needed to do something before he fell over the edge again.

Alfred had paced a good couple hundred times when he started feeling weak and light headed. Alfred stumbled around for a little bit before he fell onto the ground.

* * *

It was that damn dream again that Alfred woke up to. He was not in the mood for this.

"I sense you're a little angry," Abigail's voice echoed around, but she didn't appear.

"Just a bit," Alfred said through clenched teeth.

"Why?" now, Abigail appeared, right in front of Alfred. She leaned forward on him, going close enough so that they could kiss, but she stopped right in front of Alfred's lips. "Because you're afraid of losing them again?"

"Fuck. Off. Abigail," Alfred growled at her.

"Well, that's not very nice!" Abigail pulled back, aghast. "Maybe you should just shut up, m'kay?" Alfred's lips suddenly closed shut. They wouldn't open, no matter how hard he tried. "There you go sweetie, much better."

Alfred, as a retort, gave her the harshest glare he has ever given. She only grinned.

"So, you're scared of losing them?" Abigail smiled, leaning on Alfred as much as she could. "One, by one…" She started walking her fingers on Alfred's chest. Abigail giggled slightly. "What was it the first time again? Mathew first, right?"

Alfred tried to growl at her, but no noise came out of his throat.

"You thought that sword slid across his throat," Abigail started laughing. "But it only slid across his chest! How great! And then Arthur got hit with that arrow, and then he fell off the side of the tower, right?"

_Shut up._ Alfred could only think. And that didn't even give him a voice in this. This was supposed to be his dream. So, why the hell couldn't he do anything?

"The Three Musketeers were kind of anti-climactic, though," Abigail sighed. "You only watched them get hanged…"

There was long pause between them.

"Don't you think it was cruel?" Abigail asked him. "I mean, how long did they leave you alone while they were perfectly fine. You thought they were all dead while they just hung around. They didn't even slip you a little note to tell you that they were fine. You were… broken. And they were perfectly fine, hiding away in some cave."

_No._ Alfred thought rapidly.

"If they really cared for you, they would have told you something, said they were okay and everything," Abigail moved herself so that her back was against Alfred's chest and she was practically cuddling with him. Alfred's arms moved without his permission around her, wrapping her in a hug. "They left you alone, it's amazing they even came back for you. Probably just because you're special. Apparently you're a Seer, but I don't know what that is," she looked up at Alfred. "I wish I could just fish through your thoughts and figure it out from that… But something's stopping me."

_Probably the fact that I am a Seer._ Alfred thought to himself.

"But I know you probably wouldn't tell me what that is," Abigail sighed. "You couldn't even tell me about Ivan…"

Another long pause.

"I just want you to know, before I go," Abigail sighed, turning around to look into Alfred's eyes. "I wouldn't have left you to fend for yourself. If you cared about me that much when I died, I would have at least told you I was fine."

* * *

Alfred sat upright, gasping for air. He looked around when he woke up and it was dark and cold. But he could still slightly see the trees around him through the darkness. There was burnt wood on the ground in the center of the clearing, and Arthur, Mathew, and Antonio were all scattered around.

Antonio was leaning against his tree, like always. Arthur was on his side, facing where the fire was. And Mathew was on his back a little further away from where the fire was. It was so calm, Alfred almost felt bad about waking one of them up.

But he had to talk now, he had to talk or he wouldn't be able to control himself. He crawled over to Mathew, not feeling like standing up. He opened his mouth to whisper at Mathew to tell him to wake up, but nothing came out.

He tried speaking again, but it was almost like his words were caught in his throat. His hands went to his throat, as if that would make everything all better. He tried screaming, but nothing came out.

He shook his head furiously, backing up to where he was when he woke up. This was not happening, this was not happening. This was a dream, this was a dream.

_Just go to sleep,_ Alfred thought. _When you wake up, your voice will be back, just go to sleep._

Alfred tried to calm himself down and he laid down on his back. He looked up at the sky, there were so many stars… Alfred never thought much about them before, but right now they were interesting. They were little dots taking up the sky. How did they get there?

What were they?

Alfred smirked, this was calming him down. He had heard about guardian angels…Maybe that's what they were. There were so many of them up in the sky, Alfred couldn't count. And if everyone had a guardian angel, there should be an infinite number, right?

So, which one was Alfred's? That really dim one just above the tree line, barely able to be seen? Or maybe that tiny one hidden in a place where no one could see it. It definitely wasn't that big one in the middle of the sky. It was far too bright. The person with that angel must be well protected…

Before Alfred knew it, staring up at the sky, he fell asleep.

He had a dream about stars.

The first good dream he had in months.

* * *

**I'm sorry this chapter is so short, I'm running behind and this is the best I got. This chapter was hard, because it was one of those things that I never thought of in the first place. Next chapter, though, that one is all planned out, and it's going to be longer (hopefully!)**

**Also, one more thing to know about this. Some of my sentences are getting short and choppy, that represents Alfred and his thoughts starting to become jumbled as he starts slowly freaking out. Just saying**

**And I am so happy everyone still loves this story so much! It makes me so happy! That's why I decided to end this off on a good note, not a cliffhanger. Just for you!**

**Please review!**

**The Earth is more likely to stop spinning than I am to own Hetalia.**


	9. Voice

"Alfred, wake up." A familiar voice rang through Alfred's ears as he felt something shoving into his arm.

Alfred quickly opened his eyes and sat up straight. It was daytime again, and Mathew was on his right side, the side that was being shoved. Alfred turned to him excitedly, and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His hands immediately went to his throat. This was not happening again.

"Alfred, are you okay?" Mathew asked him, moving a hand to rest on his shoulder.

Alfred tried to talk again, but nothing came out, so he shook his head furiously.

"Alfred?" Antonio asked, coming up behind Mathew, still standing though.

"I-I don't think he can talk," Mathew said.

"What?" Arthur asked, he came into the picture to, kneeling down next to Mathew.

God, this was embarrassing. Everyone was watching him now. Alfred wanted to say that he was fine, but he couldn't quite talk that much.

"Here, let me see your throat," Arthur said, holding his hand out.

Alfred shook his head, keeping his hands on his throat.

"Calm down," Arthur sighed, moving Alfred's hands down. "It's probably just magic," Arthur moved his right hand onto Alfred's neck. Alfred nearly jumped, his hands were cold, and slightly shaky. Alfred felt a tingle go down his spine and Arthur looked at him seriously.

"So, what is it?" Mathew asked.

"It's a spell, alright," Arthur sighed, sounding slightly irritated. "But, for some reason, I can't reverse it."

Alfred felt his eyes widen. Did this mean he wouldn't be able to talk forever? Alfred shook his head furiously.

"Does this mean he won't be able to talk for a while?" Mathew asked, practically reading Alfred's mind.

"That might prove some relief for a while," Antonio said. Alfred looked up to glare at him, and he found him smirking. Arthur moved his hand away.

"I-I'm sorry," Arthur muttered.

Alfred silently groaned and shoved his face into his hand. He knew this was all Abigail's fault. She knew Alfred finally wanted to talk to someone, and she was intent on making sure that didn't happen. Alfred only wished he could tell them what he knew. He knew the reason Arthur couldn't fix the spell. It was because he had a lot less magic than he did before, because of Abigail. Arthur wasn't the strongest witch anymore, Abigail was. And that made Alfred's blood boil.

"Well, we shouldn't let this slow us down, we still need food," Arthur stood up and Alfred looked up.

"I-I think I'm gonna stay here," Mathew muttered. "I'm not feeling so good today."

Alfred looked at his brother nervously.

"Fine, then, you both can stay here," Antonio said. "While we go get something for us."

Alfred stood up quickly, and tried to say "No way, I'm going." But again, nothing came out.

"Alfred, you can't go with us," Arthur said. "Won't people find it a bit weird you can't talk?" Alfred crossed his arms and glared at Arthur. "Fine, you can come," he sighed. "Mathew, can you handle yourself here for today?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Mathew nodded. "I think I just need to sleep, is all. I feel exhausted."

Alfred leaned down really quick in front of Mathew and put a hand on his shoulder, making sure to make eye contact.

"Alfred, I'll be fine," Mathew smiled. "Trust me."

Alfred looked down at the ground, giving a silent sigh. He really shouldn't be leaving Mathew alone, especially with him feeling weak, but someone needed to talk to Abigail. No one else really knew what he knew. He stood up just in time to see Antonio and Arthur going through the forest. Alfred slowly ran after them, turning around once to wave good-bye to Mathew.

As soon as the trio got into town, Alfred grabbed onto Arthur's wrist and started pulling him in some direction. If he was going to talk to Abigail. He sure as hell wasn't doing it alone, especially while he couldn't even talk himself.

"Alfred, where are you going?" Arthur demanded. Alfred looked back at him, putting the most serious look he had on his face. "Fine, I'll follow you."

Alfred ran around for a while, he didn't know where to go, really. Abigail always found him in the past… Alfred eventually stopped walking around in front of the barns that he and Abigail had their first real chat alone. He let go of Arthur and started looking around.

"Alfred," Arthur said, but Alfred didn't look back at him. "I-I'm sorry." Alfred stopped and turned around to look at Arthur. "What you said yesterday, I…you were right and I'm sorry. I should have been thinking more of the others. I'm sorry I was rude to you. I should have known you wouldn't do anything with her…"

Alfred grinned and walked over to him. He wanted to tell him that it was fine, that he didn't care. But, since he had to work with body language, Alfred cupped Arthur's chin in his hand and kissed him. It was refreshing, not kissing Abigail and not having someone attacking his lips or body in a fever. This was nice, and he could have stayed like that all day, if it weren't for the sound of clapping going on behind them.

They separated and Alfred turned around so that he stood next to Arthur. Abigail was leaning against the side of a barn, clapping her hands together, with a smirk decorating her face.

Alfred tried to say, "What the hell are you doing here?" but he wound up just mouthing the words.

"What's the matter, Alfred?" Abigail asked innocently. "Cat got your tongue?"

"And I suppose you're the one that cast that spell?" Arthur asked her.

"Is something wrong?" Abigail smiled. "Can't you undo it yourelf?"

"What I'm wondering the most is how it even works on Alfred," Arthur said. "As a Seer, magic shouldn't affect him in the slightest."

"Well, I don't know much about Seers, dear," Abigail sighed. "Mind telling me a bit so that I could help you in your questions?"

"A Seer," Arthur sighed, "is a kind of witch that is void of magic, meaning magic can't touch them or affect them. Some kinds of Seers can disable magic just by being around a witch."

_So that's what a Seer is_ Alfred thought. _Wait. I'm a witch? _Alfred looked at Arthur questioningly.

"Oh, well that makes so much more sense," Abigail said happily, stepping towards them. "As a witch himself, that means he has at least some magic, right? That's how he is void of magic, because his prevents any from coming in?"

"I guess you could say that," Arthur said.

"He's running out of that magic, therefore some magic can slip in, especially some as powerful as mine is," Abigail grinned as she kept coming towards them slowly.

"Your magic is nowhere near as powerful as mine," Arthur glared at her, almost like a warning. Alfred poked him, giving a gesture with his hands telling him to stop.

"Not anymore, dear," Abigail said. She was up close to Arthur now, doing what she usually did to Alfred. She was leaning forward, her fingers playing across Arthur's chest. Arthur looked flustered, like he didn't know what to do. "That magic is mine now."

Alfred grabbed onto Abigail's shoulders, pulled her off of Arthur, and turned her around to look at him. Alfred tried to growl at her, but not even that noise came out of his throat.

"You know, it's such an improvement that no one can hear you talk," Abigail giggled. "You're far less annoying that way."

That was it. Alfred moved his arm over his shoulder, clenching his hand into a fist, ready to just bring it back at hit Abigail in the face.

But he couldn't do it.

Just seeing Abigail made him want to hit someone, preferably her. But he couldn't bring himself to strike her.

"Hero complex getting in the way?" Abigail asked, far too smug for Alfred's liking. "Too afraid to hit a pretty lady? It's cute, almost. You've had that complex since you were little."

Alfred closed his eyes tightly, his form of "Shut up" for the time being.

"You had the hero complex before, yeah?" Alfred felt pressure on his chest. He opened his eyes and saw Abigail leaning on him. "You liked to show it off around Arthur a lot."

"Abigail, I think you're done," Arthur crossed his arms.

"Oh, but this is just so much fun!" Abigail giggled. "And it's all going according to my plan."

"What plan?" Arthur asked.

"Alfie knows," Abigail smiled. "He knows _perfectly_ well." Alfred glared at her. "And you're falling into it perfectly, too, Arthur. Acting like a jealous teenage girl."

"Abigail, you can stop," Arthur warned her.

"But it's so fun screwing up people's lives," Abigail smiled. "I've been doing it for quite a while now."

Alfred's hand finally moved. It didn't close into a fist, but it still swiped hard across Abigail's face with a loud _SMACK_! Abigail's face turned to the side and there was a red mark on her face. Alfred backed up slightly, getting away from Abigail, almost like he was afraid of her.

"Fun fact, Alfie," Abigail grinned, her face still off to the side. Alfred saw her eyes go yellow. She slowly lifted her head so that she could go face to face with Alfred. She took a step towards Alfred and he took a step backwards. She swiped her hand towards Alfred, grabbing onto his chin and forcing him to look right into her face. The color of her eyes was sending chills down Alfred's spine. He didn't know why he was so terrified all of a sudden.

"Did you know Mattie spoke French?" Abigail grinned. _No._

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Arthur asked, his voice shaking slightly, like he wasn't sure what he should do. _Not Mathew._

Alfred shook his head out of her grip and tore off running, going back to their camp. He forced his way through the trees quickly, nearly hitting his head several times on low branches. By the time he had gotten to the clearing, he was out of breath.

He looked around in a fever looking for Mathew, and he found him lying on the ground near the black spot that was their fire. God, how Alfred hoped he was sleeping.

Alfred rushed over to Mathew and kneeled down next to him. He shakily grabbed hold of one of Mathew's arms and pushed it slightly. Mathew didn't move. Alfred shook harder. Mathew just rolled over onto his back from the force of it all.

Alfred kept on shaking his head, trying to say the word "no." This couldn't happen. Mathew couldn't be gone already. The only comforting thing was that Mathew's chest kept on rising and falling with his every breath. Alfred felt something hot stream down his cheek from his eye. More and more hot liquid cascaded down his cheeks as he continued trying to shake his brother awake.

"Alfred, why did you run?" Arthur's voice called out to him from the forest. "What happened? Is something-" the voice stopped when it sounded pretty close. "Oh, no, not Mathew. I-I'm so sorry, Alfred."

Alfred wanted to say something that showed his anger, rather than his sadness. He wanted to scream at Arthur to go away, but he couldn't. So he just sat there, trying to wake Mathew up.

"Alfred, you need to stop shaking him," Arthur said, grabbing hold of Alfred's hands so that they were off Mathew. "It's not going to help anything." Alfred looked down at the ground to try to hide the fact that he was crying.

"A-Are you going to be okay?" Arthur asked delicately.

Alfred didn't respond. Inside his head, he was freaking out. He should have stayed with Mathew when he heard him saying that he wasn't feeling very good. It was probably just him getting Abigail mad that this happened. Why the hell did he have to hit her? Now Mathew was gone. If this kept going on, he was definitely going to lose it. If he hadn't lost it already.

"Alfred?" Arthur's voice said softly and a hand rested on Alfred's shoulder. Alfred blinked away the tears in his eyes and wiped away the ones on his cheek before looking up to Arthur. "Are you going to be okay?"

Alfred glanced back down to the ground before he decided to stand up.

Arthur sighed. "We should get him to that house Gilbert and Francis are in."

Alfred nodded and stooped down to pick Mathew up, his arms holding him up by his back and the crook of his knees. Alfred nearly broke down again when he saw Mathew's head loll lifelessly to the side.

"Come on," Arthur moved him towards the forest and they started walking.

"So, Abigail said that you know what's going on," Arthur muttered. "So that means you know what Abigail's doing?"

Alfred nodded.

"She was talking about how my magic is hers now," Arthur rubbed the back of his head. "Is that true?"

Alfred nodded again.

"Then that means she must be a-" Arthur was cut off by a scream coming from the town.

"Oh, my God! He fainted!" a woman screamed in the town.

"Antonio…" Arthur muttered and they both started running.

* * *

**So, I've been running a bit behind...Sorry about that. Life's been hard. But, on the bright side, I've updated two different stories today! I really hope to get back on track and finish this before finals, so let's see how that goes!**

**Please review so that I can write more and make my goal!**

**I have no idea what smart ass thing to put here... So I'll just say that I don't own Hetalia**


	10. Alone

Alfred and Arthur ran quickly through the forest brush and into town. Just like when this happened to Francis, there were several people circling Antonio, who now lay on the ground.

"Who could have done it?" a woman asked.

"If it's not the demon child…" a man muttered.

"Move, out of the way," Ludwig's voice came in just as Alfred and Arthur came to the outskirts of the circle.

A woman turned around slightly and, when she spotted Alfred holding onto Mathew, she nearly screamed.

"Oh, my God," she said loudly so that everyone could hear her. "There's another one!"

"What?" Ludwig asked. The crowd broke apart and he walked through it, going up to Alfred and Arthur. Upon seeing them, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why is it all of the recent ones are from you're group?"

Alfred opened his mouth to say something, but Arthur answered quicker. Alfred nearly glared at him before he remembered that he couldn't speak.

"We are not sure," Arthur said quickly. "We do not know much of it ourselves."

Alfred really wanted to interject something about Abigail, but his damn voice wouldn't let him.

"Well," Ludwig sighed, he looked over Mathew and looked up at Alfred. "I take it he was your bruder?"

Alfred nodded his head, hoping that would hide his lack of voice.

"Well, you look similar…" Ludwig muttered. "You can bring him to the house. I will bring the other."

Alfred nodded again, giving out a silent sigh when he looked down at Mathew.

Alfred followed Ludwig, after he picked up Antonio, through town and to that house that Gilbert and Francis were in. Alfred silently set Mathew down on a bed and then turned to leave.

"You're being rather quiet," Ludwig said before Alfred could reach the first step to go downstairs.

Alfred scratched the back of his head and shrugged, not turning around. Before Ludwig could say anymore, he ran down the stairs and back outside, nearly running into Arthur.

"Jesus, slow down before you hurt someone," Arthur said. He took one look at Alfred and his face turned to concerned. "Are you alright, Alfred?"

Alfred couldn't guess how bad he looked by now. He felt like it was all happening again and he wouldn't be able to take it for long. Alfred just looked at the ground, rather than giving a reply. He would give anything to pour his heart out to Arthur right there, but he couldn't do that if he couldn't talk. Alfred could feel himself shaking.

"Alfred?" Arthur's voice was concerned, but Alfred barely noticed it. He was feeling lightheaded and his eyelids wouldn't stay up. His body became too weak for it to keep himself up, and then he crumbled to the ground. His eyes not even stay open long enough to see himself fall.

* * *

"Last one."

"Last one."

"Last one."

Those two words repeated over and over again in Alfred's dream. That voice wasn't his, but at the same time it was. Alfred refused to open his eyes, and he felt his hands go to the sides of his head, as if that would get everything to stop.

"Scared."

"Scared."

"Scared."

_No, the hero is never scared!_ Alfred tried to reassure himself.

"Some hero."

"Letting everyone fall."

"You should have saved them."

_I couldn't._

"Try harder."

_I am!_

"Falling apart."

"Everyone's gone."

"No one is left to help."

_Arthur's still here. I'm not alone._

"Are you sure?"

"He won't stay for you."

"Who would?"

_Shut up!_

"Make me."

"I bet you can't."

"Some hero."

"Can't even save your own brother."

_I did save him. Once._

"Did you?"

"Or did Arthur?"

"You just watched."

"Then what?"

"You moped in the castle."

"You didn't even care to find him."

_Shut up!_

"You didn't even try."

"Some hero."

_I did try!_

"Pathetic."

"Pathetic."

"Pathetic."

The voices all stopped all at once when Alfred felt something collide with his lips. He couldn't even hear his own thoughts, even though he knew they were still happening. Alfred finally opened his eyes, to find Abigail the one kissing him. She was soft, though, kind. Like she almost pitied Alfred. They separated, Abigail opening her eyes with a light smile on her face. All of a sudden, they shrank, to the size of kids. They were standing on the grass in front of that lake they had back in their town.

"You're thoughts are so nasty," Abigail's voice sounded like it did when she was a kid. "I don't think you need to hear them anymore."

"A-Abby…" Alfred's voice sounded like it did when he was a kid, too.

"Is it sad to know you're all alone?" Abigail wrapped Alfred into a hug. Alfred didn't move. Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't know what to do. "I would never leave you."

Alfred felt tears well in his eyes and he couldn't hold them back as they flooded out.

"_He_ left you alone. Several times. I wouldn't trust him to stay much longer."

There was a long silence.

"I will stay."

Another silence.

"No one else has stayed. They've all left. They left you alone."

"They're leaving because you make them," Alfred said.

"I do it with good reason," Abigail still hadn't separated the hug. "Mathew left and lied to you. The Three Musketeers are just thieves that don't deserve you. And Arthur took the world away from you before. And he didn't give it back until you were broken."

"You left, too," Alfred said quicklyc before he could fall for her logic.

"Only because I had to," Abigail said sweetly.

"Arthur didn't take my world away from me, Ivan did," Alfred said. He was talking to himself more than Abigail. He still couldn't hear his own thoughts. "Arthur brought my world back."

"He brought it back a little too late, though, didn't he?" Abigail asked.

"No," Alfred said quickly. "He brought it back just in time."

"Then why are you still broken?"

"Because you're taking my world away from me." Alfred was finally getting his ground again.

"You don't want me as your enemy, Alfred."

"I thought you already were." Alfred grinned.

Abigail separated them. They were still kids, though. So her angry face was far less demeaning than she obviously meant for it to be.

"I was going to give you mercy," she snapped. "I was going to give you back your magic. But you don't deserve it anymore."

"Good," Alfred grinned. He knew that, if he still looked like a kid, it would have that cocky attitude he was looking for right there. "Because I don't want any mercy from you."

"This is your last chance," she warned.

"Good, because I'm tired of saying no."

"Goodbye, Alfred."

The world seemed to fly away like a flock of crows, and then Alfred was left alone, in the dark.

* * *

Alfred sat up straight from where he was, gasping slightly. He looked around for a quick second to see where he was, and found that he was in the room where Mathew, Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio were. He got up quickly and practically ran for the stairs.

_Don't look at them, don't look at them, don't look at them._ He knew that if he were to look at them, his newfound resolve would probably shatter.

As soon as Alfred stepped out of the house, he heard a scream. That only meant one thing at this point… _Alone._ The voice from his dream reminded him, but Alfred ignored it and started running towards where he heard the scream. He came upon a rather large looking, wood building.

He gripped onto the handle. _Alone_.

Alfred opened the door and found a rather large room with a lot of benches on the half of the room he was in. The benches separated perfectly to make an isle right down the middle. There was a wood fence, separating the room into halves. On the far half, there were two desks. Sitting in the benches close to Alfred, was maybe half of the town, maybe more. In the far half, standing in front of the desks, as Ludwig, and some people Alfred had never seen before. In the front of the benches, closest to the desks, was Abigail, Feli, and Lovi.

On the floor, slightly off to the side of the desk, was Arthur. His eyes were closed. Almost everyone in the room was in a panic.

_Alone._

"Well, it's not him," Ludwig pinched the bridge of his nose. "Calm down, everyone! Calm down! It's not the end of the world that someone fainted." Ludwig looked down the aisle and made eye contact with Alfred. "Alfred, you're awake?"

"Um…uh…yeah," Alfred said, at first not trusting his voice to work. But he was happy noise came out of his throat.

"I bet it's him!" Abigail stood up, turned around, and pointed a finger at Alfred.

"What?" Alfred took a step back in surprise.

"Yeah, he was mad at Arthur yesterday!" Feli yelled out.

"He wouldn't even talk to him!" Lovi yelled out. "He probably did this because he was mad!"

"You have got to be kidding me," Alfred muttered as the crowd started getting excited. "I am _not_ being accused of being a witch."

* * *

**I'm sorry I haven't updated this story in a while! This is what I get for trying to do two stories at once... I get more interested in the other one and forget about the other one. But that other story is finished and this one is close to being finished. Two chapters left after this one!**

**I'm sorry my first chapter back is a short one... I really am... But I did my best and the next one will probably be a bit short too, but not short on action, I guarantee. I've been planning this next chapter since I started this thing and I'm excited to put it up! Hopefully, if all is well, I will update tomorrow. It probably will all be well, my finals tomorrow are just P.E.**

**Anyway, review! So that I will feel good about myself. And, on my profile, I have a poll up right now. Since I have so many stories going around in my head right now, I can't decide what to do next! So please vote on that and tell me what you think I should start next.**

**America is more likely to give up hamburgers than I am to own Hetalia.**


	11. Specters

"You have _got _to be kidding me," Alfred sighed as a few people in the rowdy crowd started pulling him up to the desk. Arthur was being carried off and Alfred refused to look. If he did, he would most likely break down before he would be able to get anywhere. He did, however, see Abigail smirking in her seat from the crowd, her arms crossed joyfully in front of her.

"So, how exactly does this work?" Alfred asked Ludwig as he moved to sit on the desk. He started distractingly kicking his feet to try to keep himself distracted from Arthur. He knew he wouldn't last much longer before he cracked.

"Well, for one thing, you sit in the chair," Ludwig sighed. "And this is not my idea, to question you."

"Nah, I don't care," Alfred said, not moving from his spot.

"Fine then," Ludwig pinched the bridge of his nose. "Good luck then."

"What do you mean by that?" Alfred cocked an eyebrow.

"How long have you been a witch?" Ludwig asked calmly, but the crowd seemed completely riled up.

"Um, what?" Alfred looked up questioningly.

"Answer the question, witch," Abigail snapped.

"Oh, shut up, you," Alfred snapped back. "No one wants your opinion."

"Obviously they do, if they put you up there," Abigail countered.

"Mein gott," Ludwig sighed. "This is going to be harder than I expected."

Abigail bit her lip for a second, looking like she was thinking. Suddenly, she stood up, pointing at a corner of the giant room. "There!" she screeched. "It's his specter!" she looked back at Feli and Lovi. "Don't you see it?"

"I-I see it!" Feli stood up first. Alfred looked back at the corner, there was nothing there.

"I saw it come right out of him!" Abigail yelled. The people around her started screaming that they saw it. Apparently it was some kind of rodent that could climb right up the wall. "L-look out! It's coming to attack!"

All of them screamed, clambering up onto their seats with their feet up there with them.

"Are you doing this?" Ludwig asked Alfred.

"Um, I don't even know what the hell they're doing," Alfred said, watching them with amusement. "But they look like idiots."

"You're one to talk!" Abigail argued. "Ouch! It bit me! Look! It bit me!" She held out her finger for everyone to see. There was blood running down her finger.

Alfred laughed. "What? You hurt yourself?"

"See? He hates me!" Abigail yelled at the others. "That's why he sent his specter to attack me!" The crowd all seemed to agree to that and started yelled at Alfred. "Ow! It keeps on biting me! Make it stop, Alfred! Make it stop! Before it bites anything off!"

"I'm not sending anything to attack you," Alfred said, losing the amusement of the situation. "You're attacking yourself."

The entire room seemed to start spiraling into chaos as Abigail continued ranting about the rat was biting her all over. She even went so far as to stand up, batting as it as it travelled up her body.

"Alfred, stop attacking me!" she screamed. "It hurts, Alfred!"

"I'm afraid all evidence points towards you being a witch," Ludwig said. He was still calm, somehow, through this chaos.

"You can't be telling me you believe the crap she's spitting out," Alfred snapped.

"Ja," he said solemnly. "They are our only evidence. If Abigail says she gets hurt and proves it, that's it."

"I'm not a witch," Alfred argued. Technically, this was true, but he was void of magic, meaning he couldn't send out a whatchamacallit…a specter.

"Alfred, stop this! Call of your specter!" Abigail screamed, still trying to bat at the imaginary rat.

"Alfred…" Ludwig warned.

"Jesus, let me think," Alfred snapped. He couldn't hear anything over the screaming of the people in the room. But it all just got worse.

"Help me! It won't get off!" Abigail continued her screaming. "It hurts! Ow! It nearly took my finger off!"

Alfred gritted his teeth and took a deep breath.

Fine. If she was playing this game, he could play, too.

"Dear God, what the hell is that!" Alfred yelled. He scrambled onto the table, going backwards slightly, and pointed at the air just above Abigail. Abigail stopped her fidgeting to glare at Alfred. "A-Abigail, is that you?"

"I'm down here, Al," she growled.

"Jesus Christ, it's coming towards me!" Alfred yelled. "I-I think she wants to hit me! Please, Abigail, don't hit me!"

Alfred stole a quick look behind him and sighed inwardly. Taking one for the team. If he was going down, she was going down with him. Alfred flew himself off the desk and into the chair, which then crashed to the ground, causing Alfred to fall on his back.

"Sh-she hit me!" Alfred screamed. "A-Abigail! I-Is this because y-your jealous of m-my magic?" Alfred didn't know what he was saying at this point, anything to make it look believable.

"Are you saying you're a witch now?" Ludwig looked at him slightly like he was crazy, but mostly with pity. That meant it was working.

"Y-yes! Yes!" Alfred pleaded and pretended that Abigail hit him again, making his head fly in some direction. "Abigail! Stop hurting me!"

Alfred took a chance by looked over at Abigail in the stands and he wished he hadn't. She looked beyond pissed, just about ready to chop his head off. Suddenly, another her showed up, floating just above her. It looked just like her, just a little more transparent, and a hell of a lot scarier, if that was even possible. It came towards Alfred quickly, who started crab walking towards the wall to try to get away from it.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!_ Alfred thought quickly as he bumped into the wall behind him. This was a real specter.

"A-Abigail, get away from me!" Alfred yelled, in real terror now. But this was going with his plan, so he decided to see if he could work with it. The specter came up to him and rocketed a fist towards his face. After an immense amount of pain, Alfred felt something running down his nose. He swiped his hand underneath his nose and looked at it. "Ah! Sh-she made me bleed! A-Abigail! Stop hitting me!"

The crowd was going crazy around them and Ludwig seemed incapable of calming them down for the time being. The specter continuously hitting Alfred over and over again in all different places. He kept on calling out for Abigail to stop it, which he would have actually appreciated at the time.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Ludwig seemed to yell at the top of his lungs. Everyone stopped even moving. Even the specter disappeared, Abigail was too shocked to keep her focus. Alfred stayed where he was on the ground, scared to move. Ludwig sighed, holding onto his head like he had a headache. "Get these two to the jail. We will deal with them later."

Alfred was helped up as he saw several people surround Abigail. They were both then dragged out of the room, just in time to hear Ludwig tell the crowd, "Now go home, all of you."

Alfred watched the entire crowd leave disappointedly.

Abigail gave Alfred a death glare their entire time to that door Alfred saw Gilbert being carried out of. In all the excitement, Alfred realized he had forgotten the events of the past few days. He winced, trying to shove those thoughts away for just a quick second.

Eventually, when they entered the dungeon, Alfred was shoved forcefully against a wall. Abigail was just left there as the people who brought them just left.

"What the hell was that, Alfred!" Abigail snapped at him. She ignored the others in their surroundings, which seemed like an awful lot to Alfred. He was amazed to see so many people in this one small space. Had they all been accused of witchcraft?

"Me putting myself on the same playing field as you," Alfred replied happily.

"You will never be on the same playing field as me," Abigail warned.

"Then how on Earth did I get you here?" Alfred smirked.

"I should kill you right now!" Abigail threatened.

"You don't scare me," Alfred pointed out.

"I should," Abigail said, calming herself down slightly. "Because I've practically almost killed all the others."

"You haven't killed them," Alfred said, trying to keep his voice level. "They are perfectly fine right now."

"But I'm still sapping their energy," Abigail stepped towards Alfred and Alfred reflexively stepped backwards. "And I'm still sapping yours."

"That's weird, because I haven't been feeling different the past couple of days," Alfred chuckled.

"You will," Abigail grinned. She shoved Alfred lightly, but that still slammed him against the wall behind him harshly. How strong had she gotten recently?

"Nope, still feel fine," Alfred said.

"Doesn't it bother you that you've been left all alone?" Abigail stepped towards him. "Again?"

Before Alfred could give a smart ass reply, his vision suddenly changed to something else. Several images came into his view as his vision was blocked. First, there was Francis, fainted on the ground. Then there was Francis with a rope around his neck. Gilbert being carried out, unconscious out of the dungeon. And then there was Gilbert dropping down with a rope around his neck. Then Antonio, on the ground. Followed by Antonio hanging in the air by a rope around his neck.

The two that affected him the most, though, was Mathew and Arthur. The first image of Mathew was him passed out on the ground in the forest. But then came the image of his "throat" being slit. A picture of Arthur showed up with him on the ground next to the desk. Finally, there was the image of Arthur falling down the side of the tower.

"Stop it," Alfred growled, knowing she could still hear him. Eventually, his vision blurred back to the dungeon.

"Friendly reminders," Abigail hummed. "Do you remember what it was like to be broken? Did it feel like this?"

"No," Alfred sighed, shaking away the feeling he was getting in the back of his head. "And I am not broken. That was the past, and I'm over it."

"No, you're not," Abigail giggled. "I've been in your mind," she came close to Alfred, pointing a finger at Alfred's head. "It's not a very sane place anymore. I would know."

"I am fine," Alfred said, swatting her hand away.

"No, not quite lad," her voice perfectly mimicked that of Arthur and Alfred twitched.

"Shut up," he growled.

"Why? Does it bother you?" her voice switched to Gilbert's.

"Yes," Alfred admitted.

"That's a shame, mon cher," she stroked Alfred's chin, her voice mimicking Franics.

"Shut up," Alfred's voice turned into a quaver. He closed his eyes, and that mirage of images from before followed again and again and again, on a continuous loop.

"I'd rather not," Antonio's voice.

"Shut up!" Alfred nearly screamed at her.

"All alone again?" Mathew's soft, comforting voice. "Need someone to talk about it? Before you go insane?"

"Don't do that with his voice," Alfred said through clenched teeth, opening his eyes again.

"Why not?" she kept Mathew's voice, smiling at how much it bothered Alfred. "I'm just poking fun, Alfred."

"St-stop it!" Alfred clamped his hands around his head, trying to get his thoughts together. This was not good, he shouldn't be letting her get to him.

"It's okay, baloven'," she chose Ivan's voice this time as she stroked the side of Alfred's face.

Alfred's knees began to feel weak and they could barely keep him standing. He was starting to feel lightheaded.

"It will all be over soon," Ivan's voice rang out as Alfred's legs made him drop to the ground. He couldn't even move, he was so exhausted. He didn't even know why he felt so tired. It was almost like all of his energy was just…gone.

He felt something wet go down his cheek. It was not a tear, he wouldn't never admit to that.

He was not alright. He was not okay.

He should have talked to them about this sooner, before it got to him this much.

Alfred's thoughts slowly faded away as his eyelids began to droop.

Abigail sat down next to him, stroking his chest. She spoke, using her own voice this time.

"I will make you mine, Alfred Jones," she muttered as Alfred's world started going black. "Before you die."

* * *

**And cliffhanger! Last cliffhanger of this story, on the bright side! I'm sorry I'm a little off with the whole trial thing and the dungeon. I'm not very good with details like that. The only background info I have on this is stuff I learned from The Crucible. And, I would like to point out that I named Abigail before I knew The Crucible existed. So, don't accuse me of copying her.**

**Anywho... Um, reviews are well appreciated. Don't be afraid to tell me how I'm doing!**

**England will sucessfully cook food before I own Hetalia.**


	12. Awaken

Alfred's seemingly endless darkness was interrupted by the sound of voices. They sounded worried and there were quite a few of them.

"Are you sure he is going to be okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure! …He has to be…"

"But we woke up days ago."

"Bear in mind that we also fainted a couple of days before him, too."

"And what about his screaming? None of us did that in our sleep."

"Well, he's been through a little bit more than us before we fainted!"

"He did go through a trial."

"And he talked to Abigail before she was killed. There's no telling what she said to him…"

"What if he doesn't wake up? What then?"

"He's going to wake up! There's no way he can't."

"How do we even know he's still alive? You can use your magic when you're touching him, after all."

"I'm pretty sure even I could do that now."

"You will not touch him!"

"Why not?"

"Because, that's why!"

"Arthur, calm down…"

"I…I can't. He-he has to be okay. I don't think I could take it if he didn't wake up…"

"I'm sure that's how he felt about you."

"But he continued trying to stop her even after you fainted."

"You need to be able to move on if he doesn't wake up."

"Don't say that!"

Alfred realized that his head was throbbing. He wanted to say something, but his mouth wouldn't open and nor would his eyes. He settled with letting out a groan.

"Alfred?" Arthur's voice rang loudly through Alfred's ears. He sounded both concerned and relived at the same time. Alfred felt hand on his arm, someone was shaking him. "Alfred, wake up! Please!"

Alfred finally gathered enough strength to open his mouth slightly and he could barely form words, so all he could say was, "Please stop that…"

The shaking stopped immediately.

"Alfred…" Arthur's voice was thick with disbelief. Alfred groaned again and tried to squint his eyes open. He could barely see anything, but it was bright. And from his position all he could see was a ceiling. Everything was blurry, but as he opened his eyes further and further, everything became clearer and clearer.

He stared at the ceiling for a bit before he looked down to his feet. It was safe to assume that he was on a bed, he felt something soft beneath him and he saw a foot board sticking out around his feet. He saw three familiar faces at the bottom of the bed. Antonio, Francis, and Gilbert. Alfred felt his eyes open wider and he took in a deep breath, holding it in. Was everyone alright then?

He looked quickly over to his right, where he saw Mathew. He was smiling and he looked insanely relieved.

"Hey there, Alfred," Mathew sighed out.

"Alfred?" Arthur's voice rang out again, to Alfred's left. He immediately snapped his head over to the left. He saw Arthur. His hair was even more ragged than before, his skin was pale, his eyes looked dead, and his expression looked shocked, but it was definitely Arthur.

"Arthur!" Alfred cried out and sat up immediately to wrap his arms around Arthur tightly. He felt his strength returning rapidly and he hugged Arthur tighter with each bit of it he got back. He felt tears swell into his eyes and he couldn't help but let them fall onto Arthur's shoulder as he hugged him. And he couldn't help but let the sounds of sobs come out, too. He couldn't speak another word.

"Alfred," Arthur cleared his throat. He sounded a lot more dignified now. "Y-you can let go of me now."

Alfred shook his head rapidly and he could feel himself shaking terribly as he sobbed into Arthur's shoulder. "N-no," he muttered. "I-I've lost you t-twice! I-I'm not l-letting you go a…again…"

"Alfred, are you okay?" Mathew asked quietly.

"No," Alfred admitted. "No, I'm not." He continued sobbing into Arthur and he could barely hear him whispering.

"You should leave," he whispered over Alfred's shoulder and Alfred could see the Three Musketeers leaving the room through a door Alfred could barely see through his tears. Alfred heard the door close.

"Now, Alfred," Arthur spoke louder. "Tell me what's wrong."

Alfred allowed himself to sob for a few more minutes before responding. He didn't know why he was crying, but it felt amazing. He sniffled and then spoke, "I-I thought I lost you. Again. A-And last time I watched everyone die…I…I lost it! A-and I was about to-to do it again! L-last time…I, I helped s-so many get k-killed. I-I watched them k-k-kill a little girl and I-I didn't do anything! A-And then Abigail…" Alfred broke out in tears again and he couldn't say anymore. Amongst his sobbing, Alfred could feel a hand stroking his back and he knew it was Arthur because Mathew came into vision right in front of him. He was kneeling down, his face was soft.

"Hey, it's okay," Mathew smiled softly to Alfred, who started sniveling. "I killed a lot of people too. Every time I would touch a witch, I would almost faint and sometimes I really would faint, so it was very obvious when I found one. Sometimes, I would wake up after fainting to see the person I found with an arrow in their side or a sword gone through them. But I got over it. So can you."

Alfred closed his eyes tightly, still shaking. "Th-the killing doesn't bother me as much as how I…I lost you guys twice. A-and that e-every time it happens…I just…fall apart… I-I don't know why I do it… I-It's just… Sh-she just… She made me lose it before anyone was even gone!"

Arthur shushed him soothingly. "It's alright, love."

"Arthur nearly lost it when you wouldn't wake up," Mathew giggled. "It was pretty cute how he protected you."

Arthur sputtered. "I did _not_ protect him that much!"

"He wouldn't let anyone else touch you," Mathew giggled as Alfred opened his eyes and eyed Arthur questioningly.

"R-really?" Alfred stuttered.

"He insisted he carried you from the jail to this inn," Mathew said happily. "But he had to use a bit of magic so he was strong enough to pick you up. Apparently, while you were asleep, he could still touch you and use his magic."

"You really carried me?" Alfred snuggled his head into Arthur's shoulder.

"Yes," Arthur sighed. "I couldn't stand the thought of losing you and I became a bit overprotective…I didn't know that was how you felt when you had to watch us…die. What did Abigail say to you?"

Alfred shook his head. "She just…brought up bad memories. I-I knew she d-did it to a-affect me…and it worked. I-I wanted t-to talk to you before you…fainted, but sh-she wouldn't let me. Sh-she made it s-so I couldn't t-talk. Sh-she just…shoved all of m-my problems a-and my mistakes in m-my face!"

"I want you to remember this," Mathew caught Alfred's attention again. "That was your past, okay? This is your present and you still have the future ahead of you. That's how I was able to forget what I did and what happened to me. It wasn't happening anymore, so I was able to forget about it. I still think about it, don't get me wrong, but… I've just found that I really don't need to think about it very much. _I _did nothing wrong, and neither did you. So you can just put your past behind you."

"And you wouldn't believe the things I have had to do," Arthur said. "But I've been able to forget it."

"But I don't want to forget it…" Alfred muttered.

"And that's okay," Arthur said. "But you'll need to forgive yourself either way. Do you think you can do that?"

Alfred nodded. "Yeah, I think I can."

"And do you think you can let go of me?" Arthur chuckled. "Because I am having a rather hard time breathing."

"Sorry," Alfred released him and sat back in his bed. He looked over Arthur one more time. "So is that why you look like such a wreck, because you thought I wouldn't wake up?"

"Bloody hell, I don't look that bad, do I?" Arthur asked.

"Just a bit pale," Alfred smiled and ruffled with Arthur's hair. "But it's okay, you still look cute."

"Cute?" Arthur demanded. "I-I am not cute!"

"Yes you are," Alfred laughed and leaned in and kissed Arthur quickly. "And I'm pretty sure our audience can agree with that, too."

"What?" Arthur turned around quickly, seeing the Three Musketeers leaning in the doorway, grinning like idiots.

"Jesus Christ," Arthur muttered.

"I noticed them a while ago but I didn't want to tell you," Alfred laughed.

"I think you're cute, mon cher," Francis grinned.

"Shut it, frog," Arthur muttered.

"So, Alfred," Antonio spoke. "You alright now?"

"Yeah…" Alfred muttered. "Think so. As long as I won't have to ever see Abigail again…"

"Well that won't be a problem, now that she's executed," Gilbert laughed.

"She what?" Alfred asked.

"Well, it was painfully obvious to the puritans here that she was a witch after you fainted," Mathew stated.

"And then there was the fact that all of us were passed out, too," Gilbert continued.

"And so she was killed before she could do any more or go anywhere," Antonio said.

"Witch Bitch got what was comin' to her," Gilbert muttered.

"Apparently, she put up a very large fight," Arthur said. "There were a couple homes burned down and supposedly the ocean near the port became unexplainably rough. No ship could go through it until she was killed."

"If she had been alive much longer with all of that power…" Antonio said and all of the witches in the room shuddered.

"Right," Alfred said. "She had the power of everyone here… How did they manage to even kill her?"

"My guess is that she wasn't used to having that much power at once," Arthur spoke. "It would have taken her a while to use all of the power herself. I haven't even used all of my power at once yet."

"Well you better get to it," Gilbert said. "You're the last Kirkland left and you're the ones that are in charge of most of the world."

"I never said I was the last Kirkland," Arthur chuckled. "That's just what everyone assumed."

"So you have a sister?" Alfred asked.

"I never said it was a sister!" Arthur complained. "Everyone assumes it's a sister…"

"So you have a brother then?" Francis asked.

"Three," Arthur sighed. "They're just a lot better at hiding than I am."

"You have three brothers?" Mathew blinked at him.

"It's hard enough keeping track of one Kirkland," Alfred sighed.

"Well, they're supposed to be keeping track of me," Arthur sighed. "Not doing a very good job of it, I'd say."

"So you ran away from your brothers?" Antonio asked him.

"Am I not allowed to have my own backstory?" Arthur asked defensively. "I'm just a lot better at hiding it than you are!"

"So am I ever going to meet your brothers, then?" Alfred asked.

"Probably not," Arthur said. "We don't have the best relationship."

"That's okay," Alfred hummed, crossing his legs over each other. "You don't have to tell if you don't wanna."

"Thank you, Alfred," Arthur laughed.

"So, what's our next adventure going to be?" Gilbert asked.

"Perhaps getting to know each other better," Francis offered flirtatiously.

"How about we get a house first?" Mathew giggled.

"How about two houses?" Arthur asked. "I would hate to live in the same house as him."

"Fine then," Alfred said, standing up. "Let's get to it."

"Next adventure: Normal life," Gilbert shuddered. "Sounds horrible."

* * *

**Hehe... the end!**

**I would like to thank JapaneseSinister for giving me the nickname Witch Bitch for Abigail. It fits so perfectly! And only gilbert could say it...**

**So, Alfred finally got his talk. To be honest, I wrote this chapter right about after I wrote chapter 2... So this has just been waiting to be put up.**

**I hope you've all enjoyed the story! I've learned my lesson and I will never be doing a sequel again! I have learned that it is impossible to escape the fact that sequels suck compareds to the original...**

**And for my final quip:  
Arthur and Alfred are more likely to hate each other for eternity than I am to own Hetalia.**

**Thank you all! And goodbye!**


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